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The  work  of  th^  r. 

^he  preacher 


THE  WORK  of  THE   PREACHER 


The  Work  of  The  Preacher 


A  Study  of  Homiletic  Principles 
and   Methods 


BY/ 

LEWIS   O.   BRASTOW 

Formerly  Professor  of  Homiletics.  Yale  University 
Author  of  The  Modern  Tuipit,  Representative  Modern  Preachers,  Etc. 


THE     PILGRIM     PRESS 


NEW     YORK 


CHICAGO 


Copyright  1914 

BY 

Congregational  Sunday  School 
AND  Publishing  Society 


TH  I     PILGRIM     PRESS 
BOSTON 


PREFACE 

It  was  only  toward  the  end  of  his  active  service  of  twenty- 
two  years  (1885-1907)  as  teacher  of  Practical  Theology  at 
Yale  that  Dr.  Brastow  was  persuaded  to  put  some  of  the 
material  of  his  lectures  into  books,  "Representative  Modern 
Preachers"  appeared  in  1904,  and  contained  essays  on  nine 
of  the  most  famous  preachers  of  the  recent  past.  "The 
Modern  Pulpit:  a  Study  of  Homiletic  Sources  and  Charac- 
teristics," was  pubhshed  in  1906.  It  undertakes  to  analyze 
the  character  and  tendencies  of  the  modern  world,  and  in  this 
light  to  understand  the  present  ideals  and  achievements  of 
various  Christian  communions  in  Germany,  England,  and  the 
United  States.  These  biographical  studies  and  historical 
interpretations  prepared  the  way  for  a  more  theoretical  treat- 
ment of  the  principles  and  methods  of  the  preacher's  art. 
The  present  book  was  finished  in  1908.  A  year  and  a  half 
of  travel,  and  then  two  years  of  illness  delayed  its  publication, 
and  it  now  appears  as  a  memorial  of  a  finished  life. 

The  three  books  form  indeed  together  a  memorial  fitting 
and  worthy  of  this  preacher  and  teacher  of  preachers.  They 
indicate  the  range  of  his  studies,  the  variety  and  freshness  of 
his  methods  as  a  teacher,  and  the  striking  qualities  of  his 
mind.  They  are  books  which  in  an  unusual  measure  embody 
the  personality  of  their  author ;  and  his  was  a  personality  of 
unusual  force  and  distinction.  It  is  not  granted  to  many  men 
to  leave  in  books  so  characteristic  and  adequate  an  expression 
of  their  spirit  and  of  their  life  work.  These  are  not  books 
on  the  art  of  preaching  only,  but  on  the  contents  of  the 
preacher's  message  as  well.       They  deal  with  the  nature  of 


VI 


PREFACE 


the  Christian  religion,  with  its  fitness  and  sufficiency  for  the 
moral  and  spiritual  needs  of  our  own  age,  and  with  the  ways 
in  which  it  can  be  wisely  and  efifectively  applied  to  those 
needs.  To  discover  and  develop  in  his  pupils  all  the  capaci- 
ties, physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  that  serve  to  make  wiser 
and  more  effective  such  application  of  the  Gospel  to  living 
men  and  to  actual  conditions,  was  the  one  aim  of  his  life.  For 
the  present  volume  his  first  and  final  wish  would  be  that  it 
may  help  his  many  former  pupils  and  others  "to  win  men  to 
Christ  and  to  build  them  into  his  moral  completeness." 

Frank  C.  Porter. 
Yale  University, 
May,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

SECTION  FIRST 
PRE-SUPPOSITIONS    OF   HOMILETIC   SCIENCE 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    The  Christian   Conception  of  Preaching.        •        •        •         3 

1.  Christian    Preaching   as    Related    to    Subject   Matter, 

p.  4. 

2.  Christian  Preaching  as  Related  to  the  Preacher,  p.  6. 

3.  Christian  Preaching  as  Related  to  the  Audience,  p.  11. 

4.  Christian  Preaching  as  Related  to  Form,  p.  14. 

11.    The    Aim    of    Christian    Preaching 18 

1.  The  Importance  of  Homiletic  Aim,  p.  18. 

2.  The  Central  and  Inclusive  Homiletic  Aim,  p.  24. 

III.  The  Gifts  of  the   Preacher. 33 

1.  Classification  of  Gifts,  p.  34. 

a.  Mental    Gifts,    p.   34. 

b.  Emotional  Gifts,  p.  37. 

c.  Spiritual  Gifts,  p.  41. 

d.  Rhetorical  Gifts,  p.  42. 

2.  Culture  of  Gifts,  p.  44. 

IV.  The     Study     of     Homiletics So 

1.  The   Value    of   Homiletic   Study,   p.    50, 

2.  Methods   of   Homiletic   Study,   p.  60. 

a.  Study  of  Homiletic  Principles,  p.  60. 

b.  Study  of  Living  Preachers,  p.  63. 

c.  Analysis  of  Published  Products,  p.  64. 

d.  Personal  Experiences  and  Criticism,  p.  64. 

SECTION  SECOND 

SOURCES  OF  HOMILETIC  MATERIAL 
chapter  page 

I.    Biblical    Sources   of   Preacher's    Message.        ...        69 

1.  Canonical  Genuineness  and  Authenticity,  p.  70. 

2.  Use  of  the  Old  Testament  in  Preaching,  p.  TZ. 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

3.  Use  of  the  New  Testament,  p.  81. 
II.    Christian  Quality  of  thf.  Preacher's  Message.        .        .        84 

1.  Presentation    of  the  Personality  of  Christ,  p.  86. 

2.  Presentation    of    the    Personal    Character    of    Christ, 

p.  87. 

3.  Presentation  of  the  Official  Character  of  Christ,  p.  88. 

4.  The  Interpretation  of  the  Teachings  of  Christ,  p.  89. 

III.  Textual   Basis  of  the   Preacher's   Work.        ...        93 

1.  The  Significance  of  the  Text,  p.  93. 

2.  The  Value  of  the  Text,  p.  97. 

3.  Logical  and  Rhetorical  Qualities  of  the  Text,  p.  103. 

IV.  Exegetical  Basis  of  the  Preacher's  Work.        .        .        .       loS 

1.  The  Historic  Sense,  p.  108. 

a.  A  Textual   Question,  p.   108. 

b.  A  Grammatical  Question,  p.   109. 

c.  A   Contextual   Question,  p.    no. 

d.  A   Doctrinal   Question,   p.    in. 

e.  A  Historical  Question,  p.   112. 

f.  A  Literary   Question,   p.   113. 

g.  A  Religious  Question,  p.   114. 

2.  Tiie  Truth  of  the  Text  and  its  Value  for  Homiletic 

Use,  p.  116. 

a.  Historical    and    Biographical    Texts,    p.    117. 

b.  Prophetic  Texts,  p.  118. 

c.  Typical  Texts,  p.  119. 

d.  Allegorical  Texts,  p.  120. 

e.  Doctrinal  Texts,  p.  121. 

V.     Ho.MiLETic  Correspondences  in  the  Use  of  the  Text.        ,       123 

1.  Correspondence  of  Thought,  p.  123. 

2.  Correspondence  of  Tone,  p.  135. 

VI.    Considerations  Regulative  for  the  Choice  of  Subjects.      140 

1.  The  Needs  of  the  Congregation,  p.  141. 

2.  The  Claims  of  Christian  Truth,  p.   144. 

3.  The  Needs  of  the  Preacher,  p.  145. 

SECTION  THIRD 

TYPES  OF  HOMILETIC  PRODUCT 

chapter  page 

I.    The  Expository  Type 151 

I.  The  Conception  of  Expository  Preaching,  p.   152. 


CONTENTS  IX 

PAGE 
•1   .•        -n i:„..:4-:^o      ^(      Tvnncitnrv      Prpachin!?. 


CHAPTER  ,  T,  ,  • 

Homiletic     Peculiarities     of     Expository     Preaching, 


3.  Qualifications     for    Effective     Expository     Preaching, 

p.  158. 

4.  The  Value  of  Expository  Preaching,  p.   102. 

II,    The  Doctrinal  Type ^72 

1.  The   Conception   of   Doctrinal   Preaching,   p.   172. 

2.  Methods  of  Doctrinal  Preaching,  p.  176. 

3.  The   Importance  of   Doctrinal   Preaching,  p.   185. 

4.  The  Handling  of  the  Doctrinal  Sermon,  p.  195- 

202 
III.    The  Ethical  Type 

1.  The  Conception  of  Ethical  Preaching,  p.  202. 

2.  The  Christian  Quality  of  Ethical  Preaching,  p.  206. 

3.  Methods  of  Ethical  Preaching,  p.  214. 

4.  The  Need  of  Ethical  Preaching,  p.  218. 

IV.    The  Evangelistic  Type ^30 

1.  The  Conception  of  Evangelistic  Preaching,  p.  230. 

2.  The   Need   of   Pastoral   Evangelism,  p.   231. 

3.  Evangelistic  Culture,  p.  236. 

4.  Evangelistic  Motives,  p.  247. 

V.    Types  of  Sermon  Delivery 258 

1.  The  Manuscript  Type,  p.  260. 

2.  The  Extemporaneous  Type,  p.  266. 

3.  The  Memoriter  Type,  p.  273. 

SECTION  FOURTH 
METHODS  OF  HOMILETIC  ART 

PAGE 
CHAPTER 

I,    The  Introduction. 79 

1.  The  Object  of  the  Introduction,  p.  279. 

2.  Methods   of   Introduction,   p.   284. 

3.  Qualities  of  Introduction,  p.  293. 

11.    The  Theme ^99 

1.  Its   Significance  and   Importance,  p.  299. 

2.  Its  Formulation,  p.  302. 

3.  Methods  of  Statement,  p.  307- 

4.  Qualities  of  Form,  p.  3^3- 

III.    The  Outline ^^ 

1.  Its  Significance,  p.  318. 

2.  The  Methods  of  Outline,  p.  320. 


X  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

3.  The  Necessity  of  Outline,  p.  326. 

4.  The  Topics  of  the  Outline,  p.  329. 

5.  The  Value  of  the  Outline,  p.  336, 

IV.  The  Development. 349 

1.  Methods  of  Development,  p.  349. 

2.  Production  of  Material,  p.  367. 

V.  The    Conclusion 381 

1.  The  Value  of  the  Conclusion,  p.  382. 

2.  Qualities  of  the  Conclusion,  p.  386. 

3.  Methods  of  the  Conclusion,  p.  391. 

VI.    The  Rhetoricvl  Form 402 

1.  The  Claims  of  Rhetorical  Culture,  p.  403. 

2.  Professional  Factors  in  Rhetorical  Form,  p.  413. 

3.  Methods  of  Rhetorical  Culture,  p.  421. 


I 

SECTION  FIRST 

PRESUPPOSITIONS   OF  HOMILETIC 
SCIENCE 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING 

HoMiLETics  is  that  branch  of  practical  theology  which  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  science  and  art  of  preaching.  As  a  sci- 
ence, or  "way  of  knowing,"  it  deals  with  the  theory  of  preach- 
ing, or  the  principles  on  which  it  rests.  As  an  art,  or  "way  of 
doing,"  it  deals  with  the  methods  by  which  it  applies  its  prin- 
ciples. In  entering  upon  our  investigation  of  these  principles 
and  methods,  let  us  at  the  outset  note  some  preliminary  con- 
siderations touching  the  character  of  the  preacher's  work, 
and  his  fitness  and  training  for  it.  And  in  the  first  place  a 
proper  Christian  conception  of  his  function  seems  necessary. 

Preaching  is  speech,  but  not  all  speech  is  preaching.  It  is 
a  specific  type  of  speech.  To  get  at  what  is  distinctive  of  it, 
we  must  look  at  it  in  its  different  aspects.  Christian  preaching 
has  a  fourfold  interest,  and  must  be  contemplated  in  four 
different  relations.  As  related  to  its  subject  matter,  it  has  a 
specifically  Biblical  interest,  or,  more  comprehensively,  a  dis- 
tinctively religious  and  theological  interest.  As  related  to 
the  preacher,  it  has  an  official,  or  representative,  and  at  the 
same  time  a  strongly  personal,  interest.  As  related  to  the 
audience,  it  has  a  liturgical  and  an  evangelistic  interest.  As 
related  to  its  form  or  method,  it  has  an  organic  and  a  rhetori- 
cal interest.  All  of  these  elements  enter  into  our  conception 
of  Christian  preaching,  for  they  are  necessary  to  conserve  the 
interests  of  Biblical  religion,  of  the  preacher's  personality,  the 
rights  of  the  church,  the  edification  and  conversion  of  men  and 
the  laws  of  logic  and  rhetoric. 


4  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

I.     Christian  Preaching  as  related  to  Subject  Matter 

Preaching  is  properly  a  function  of  the  Christian  Church, 
and  homiletics,  as  its  science,  is,  as  already  suggested,  a 
branch  of  practical  theology.  From  this  point  of  view  only 
can  it  be  adequately  conceived  and  defined.  H  it  were  defined 
as  only  a  branch  of  general  rhetoric,  it  might  consistently  ex- 
clude all  reference  to  the  Christian  subject  matter  of  preaching 
and  all  relation  to  the  work  of  the  church.  But  it  has  for  its 
background  the  thought  and  life  of  the  church.  Every  branch 
of  Christian  theology  makes  its  contribution  to  the  preacher's 
science,  and  to  his  work,  Exegetical  and  Biblical  theology 
take  us  into  the  original  sources  of  the  Christian  preacher's 
message.  They  reveal  and  interpret  the  substance,  the  spirit, 
the  aim  and  the  method  of  the  preaching  of  Jesus  and  of  his 
consecrated  messengers,  and  they  furnish  guidance  and  in- 
spiration to  the  preacher  in  his  work  in  every  age.  Exegesis 
and  homiletics  have  been  closely  allied  in  every  period  of  the 
history  of  the  church.  Historical  theology  takes  us  into  the 
lives  and  the  activities  of  the  great  preachers  of  the  church. 
It  makes  known  the  great  commanding  truths  that  have  held 
sway  in  different  periods  of  Christian  history,  reveals  the 
influences  that,  in  the  changes  of  time,  have  wrought  upon  the 
preacher  in  modifying  his  teaching  and  his  method  and  dis- 
closes the  results  that  have  attended  the  proclamation  of  his 
message.  Doctrinal  theology  interprets  and  formulates  the 
great  central  facts  and  truths  of  redemptive  religion,  of  which 
the  preacher  may  and  may  well  avail  himself  in  his  effort  to 
give  intellectual  expression  to  his  Christian  message.  And 
practical  theology,  having  supreme  reference  to  the  present 
practical,  moral  and  religious  needs  of  men,  forages  for  its 
material  in  all  these  realms  of  theological  science  and  in  all 
other  available  realms  of  knowledge,  and  adjusts  the  preacher's 
work  to  the  conditions  of  thought  and  life  of  the  age  in  which 


CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING      5 

he  lives.  Christian  preaching  thus  presupposes  a  background 
of  Christian  truth,  of  Christian  history  and  of  Christian 
science.  It  is  not  the  utterance  of  personal  opinions  based 
on  the  intelligence  or  on  the  experience  of  the  individual 
preacher  alone.  Preaching  thus  based  would  have  no  authori- 
tatively valid  message  and  no  accredited  messenger.  Preach- 
ing is  in  the  true  and  accepted  sense  of  the  term  by  authority. 
Of  course  it  makes  its  appeal  to  the  individual  and  common 
human  conscience  and  experience.  It  presupposes  a  moral  and 
religious  sense,  without  which  it  were  fruitless.  But  it  is 
precisely  the  content  of  Christian  fact  and  truth  that  quickens 
and  enlightens  this  moral  and  religious  sense.  Preaching, 
therefore,  reaches  far  back  in  to  the  very  heart  of  Christianity. 
This  conditions  the  preacher's  message.  But  by  conditioning 
the  content  of  preaching,  it  also  conditions  our  conception  of 
its  nature,  of  its  aim  and  largely  of  its  form.  It  yields  a 
worthy  conception  of  what  it  is  to  preach,  why  we  preach,  and 
to  a  considerable  extent  it  suggests  how  we  should  preach. 
Even  the  question  of  form  is  far  more  than  an  ordinary  rhetori- 
cal question.  If  we  examine  the  preaching  of  the  early 
church,  if  we  look,  in  fact,  at  the  preaching  of  the  most 
Christian  type  in  any  period,  we  shall  see  at  once  how  it  is 
that  its  Christian  content  conditions  the  aim  which  the 
preacher  has  in  view  and  the  form  which  his  message  takes. 
In  the  first  place,  it  will  take  the  form  of  announcement.  It 
is  the  work  of  heralding.  Christianity  is  the  story  of  redemp- 
tion. It  is  the  good  news  of  the  redeeming  grace  of  God. 
It  is  first  of  all  a  revelation  of  redemptive  facts.  The  preach- 
er's primal  aim  is  to  bear  witness  to  the  facts.  Preaching  is 
first  of  all  a  presentation  of  the  message  of  grace.  But  it 
also  takes  the  form  of  teaching.  For  the  facts  and  associate 
truths  of  Christianity  must  be  interpreted.  Their  significance, 
their  mutual  interdependence  and  their  adaptation  and  adjust- 
ment to  the  intelligence  of  men  must  be  made  known.     Preach- 


6  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

ing  is  and  always  has  been  to  a  large  extent  the  expounding 
of  the  inner  significance  of  the  great  facts  and  truths  of 
Christianity ;  f.  c,  it  has  taken  the  form  of  teaching. 

It  all  ultimates,  however,  in  the  form  of  persuasion.  For 
promulgation  and  interpretation  must  have  reference  to 
practical  results.  They  must  aim  at  the  production  of  charac- 
ter and  the  regulation  of  conduct.  This  practical  enforce- 
ment of  the  truth  is  persuasion.  These  three  elements  belong 
to  any  worthy  conception  of  Christian  preaching.  The  mission 
of  Christianity  itself  demands  them.  Christian  preaching, 
therefore,  may  be  provisionally  defined  as  the  declaration, 
interpretation  and  persuasive  application  of  Christian  facts 
and  truths,  that  have  been  given  in  the  religion  of  redemption 
and  are  Biblically  fixed.  The  effectiveness  of  preaching, 
therefore,  must  depend  largely  upon  its  content.  It  is  not 
altogether  how  we  preach,  but  it  is  first  of  all  what  we  preach 
that  conditions  its  power.  Without  preaching  the  truth  it- 
self would  indeed  fail  adequately  to  reach  men.  But  it  is 
this  very  truth  that  is  the  primal  condition  of  the  preacher's 
power.  Without  the  pulpit  the  truth  would  fail.  But  without 
the  truth  the  pulpit  itself  would  fail. 

II.  Christian  Preaching  as  related  to  the  Preacher 
Preaching  has  a  personal  and  an  official  or  quasi-official 
interest.  The  personality  of  the  preacher  includes  what  he  is 
and  what  he  represents.  He  is  a  man  but  he  is  also  a  church- 
man. He  utters  the  truth  of  personal  experience,  but  it  is 
common  truth.  Preaching  is  a  strongly  personal,  but  not  a 
private  utterance. 

I.  Preaching  is  a  representative  utterance.  Explicitly  or 
implicitly,  the  preacher  speaks  for  others.  His  message  has  an 
official  or  semi-official  character.  The  function  of  the 
preacher  is  at  once  prophetic  and  priestly.  He  speaks  for  God 
and   he   speaks    for  men.     As   prophet,   the  preacher   is   the 


CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING      7 

mouthpiece  of  his  Master.  He  brings  a  message.  The  mes- 
sage presupposes  an  accredited  messenger.  Note  the  terms 
that  are  appHed  to  him  in  the  New  Testament.  He  is  an 
Apostle, — a  man  sent ;  one  commissioned  to  speak  the  word 
and  do  the  work  of  another.  He  is  an  ambassador;  one  who 
represents  a  government ;  bears  its  credentials  and  speaks  and 
acts  for  it.  He  is  a  herald;  one  authorized  to  make  a  public 
announcement.  We  may  not  over-press  these  terms,  nor  over- 
accentuate  their  official  significance.  But  they  clearly  suggest 
a  representative  character  in  the  preacher. 

As  prophet  he  represents  God.  The  term  has  no  adequate 
meaning  if  it  be  not  true  that  he  speaks  for  God.  It  is  God 
who  gives  him  his  message  and  He  who  calls  the  messenger. 
Whether  one  speak  as  evangelist,  missionary  or  pastor,  he  is 
a  messenger  and  minister  of  Christ  and  holds  his  credentials 
from  him.  But  he  is  also  a  representative  of  the  church. 
As  such  his  utterance  has,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  a 
priestly  quality.  He  is  as  really  a  servant  of  the  church  and 
speaks  for  it,  as  he  is  a  servant  of  Christ  and  speaks  for  him. 
Many  of  our  Protestant  churches  hesitate  to  use  the  word 
priestly  as  applied  to  the  work  of  a  Christian  minister.  But 
in  so  far  as  he  ministers  worthily  in  the  name  of  the  church 
and  mediates  the  grace  of  which  it  is  the  depository,  his  func- 
tion is  nothing  less  than  priestly.  The  Reformed  churches 
have  laid  full  accent  upon  the  preacher's  representative  func- 
tion Godward.  They  have  held  in  supreme  honor  the  prophetic 
function.  But  in  minimizing  the  representative  function 
churchward,  they  have  underestimated  the  priestly  function. 
In  this  the  Lutheran  and  Anglican  churches  stand  nearer  the 
truth  of  the  matter.  Every  true  preacher  should  in  some  way 
be  accredited  by  his  church.  His  proclamation  should  not  go 
forth  as  a  merely  private  utterance.  The  preacher  himself 
needs  to  feel  that  he  speaks  for  the  church,  speaks  for  those 
who  share  with  him  the  common  Christian  truth  and  life,  as 


8  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

he  needs  to  feel  that  he  speaks  for  God.  The  dignity  and 
sacredness  of  his  work  are  conditioned  by  its  priestly,  as  well 
as  by  its  prophetic  quality.  The  church  is  responsible  for  its 
message.  It  should  not  allow  it  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  pri- 
vate individuals,  who  have  no  endorsement,  explicit  or  implicit, 
official  or  quasi-oflicial.  from  it.  This  representative  character 
should  be  recognized  in  some  appropriate  way,  as  in  fact  it 
generally  is  recognized  even  in  the  case  of  the  lay  evangelist, 
at  least  by  substantial  endorsement.  It  fails,  however,  of 
fullest  endorsement  without  official  recognition.  Doubtless 
Christ  has  commissioned  many  a  man  to  bear  his  message, 
who  has  not  received  the  formal  credentials  of  the  church. 
Undue  emphasis  of  the  preacher's  dependence  on  and  limitation 
by  the  church  may  involve  an  undervaluation  of  Christ's  own 
primal  commission,  and  may  endringer  the  freedom  and  power 
of  preaching.  But  the  claim  that  the  preacher  speaks  only 
for  Christ  and  that  as  regards  the  church  he  speaks  mostly 
as  a  private  individual  and  without  responsibility  to  it,  would 
ultimate  in  the  introduction  of  fanaticism  and  caprice  and 
would  endanger  the  purity  of  public  teaching  and  produce 
schism  between  Christ  and  his  church.  The  pastoral  and 
official  quality  in  preaching,  therefore,  needs  emphasis.  The 
distinction  between  preaching  and  prophesying  is  valid. 
Prophesying  may  be  a  true  lay-function.  Preaching  is  an 
official    function. 

2.  But  true  preaching  is  an  intensely  personal  utterance. 
It  is  the  expression  not  only  of  what  is  mentally  appropriated, 
but  of  what  is  cherished  as  a  sacred  moral  and  sj)iritual  con- 
viction. We  sometimes  satirize  a  man  by  saying  that  he 
preaches.  But  we  i)ay  him  the  compliment  of  recognizing  the 
earnestness  and  genuineness  of  his  advocacy.  Preaching  has 
never  been,  and  can  never  be,  a  mere  exposition  of  objective 
truth,  but  is  a  presentation  of  truth  vitalized  by  personal  moral 
and  religious  experience.     The  truth  may  be  taught  after  a 


CHRISTIAN   CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING      9 

fashion,  without  being  spiritually  appropriated,  but  it  cannot 
be  preached.  "We  believe  and  therefore  speak,"  "We  speak 
that  we  do  know  and  testify  that  we  have  seen."  Preaching  is 
testimony  now  as  at  the  first.  The  spirit  of  God  works  through 
truth  as  appropriated  by  a  living  soul.  Apostolic  preaching 
was  a  charism.  For  this  reason  the  personal  element  was 
prominent.  In  I  Cor.,  Chapter  II,  Paul  gives  us  the  apostolic 
conception  of  preaching.  The  two  elements  are  knowledge 
and  utterance.  Knowledge  of  God's  revelation  is  product  of 
the  working  of  God's  spirit  in  the  soul  of  the  believer.  "We 
know  the  things  that  are  freely  given  us  of  God."  "The  spir- 
itual man  discerneth  *  *  *  judgcth  all  things."  And  this  knowl- 
edge is  communicated  in  zvords  that  are  also  product  of  the 
working  of  God's  spirit.  "Which  things  [i.e.,  things  freely 
given  of  God]  we  also  speak  [speak  as  well  as  know],  not  in 
words  taught  by  man's  wisdom  [logic  and  rhetoric]  but  [in 
words]  taught  by  the  spirit,  combining  spiritual  things  with 
spiritual"  [/.  e.,  uniting  a  spirit-prompted  utterance  with  a  spirit- 
taught  knowledge].  Spirit-taught  knowledge  may  not  be  com- 
bined with  a  merely  man-taught  logic  and  rhetoric.  The 
meaning  is  clear.  Experimental  knowledge  of  God's  truth, 
product  of  God's  spirit  working  within,  expresses  itself  in 
words  that  bear  the  marks  of  the  same  power  that  makes  the 
truth  known.  The  preacher's  words  become  fit  instrument 
for  the  transmission  of  the  truth.  The  spirit  of  God  is  active, 
not  only  in  revealing  the  truth  to  the  soul  but  in  those  emo- 
tions and  moral  convictions  and  spiritual  susceptibilities  as 
well  that  find  utterance  in  communicating  the  truth.  This  is 
the  truth  of  verbal  inspiration.  It  is  not  the  inspiration  that 
fixed  the  record  of  revelation,  but  the  inspiration  that  gave 
power  to  its  communication.  It  was  not  wholly  the  truth 
communicated  but  the  mighty  energy  of  the  communication 
itself,  that  made  apostolic  preaching  so  effective.  But  shall 
we  assume  that  this  inspiration  was  limited  to  the  first  Chris- 


10  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

tian  preachers?  How  then  shall  we  vindicate  the  prophetic 
quality  in  the  preaching  of  our  own  day?  How  shall  we 
justify  the  claim  that  in  every  age  the  utterance  of  the  true 
preacher  is  a  message?  We  need  not  over-press  the  term,  but 
the  preacher  who  spiritually  discerns  and  personally  appro- 
priates the  truth  and  who  utters  it  with  the  power  of  a  sympa- 
thetic moral  conviction  has  the  primal  elements  of  inspiration. 
It  was  not  merely  the  re-discovery  of  the  saving  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  their  fresh  appropriation  in  Christian  experience 
that  made  the  preaching  of  the  Reformation  so  powerful.  It 
was  the  divorce  of  the  objective  truth,  that  was  formulated 
in  the  creeds  of  the  church,  from  Christian  experience  and  the 
disproportionate  importance  that  was  attached  to  doctrinal 
formularies  that  devitalized  the  preaching  of  the  post- 
Reformation  period.  It  is  the  restoration  of  the  subjective 
and  personal  element  that  gives  character  to  the  preaching  of 
our  own  day.  The  subjective  and  personal  element  is  the 
individualizing  power  in  preaching.  Individuality  of  form  is 
one  of  the  marks  of  the  preaching  of  all  the  great  reform 
preachers  of  the  church.  Preaching  that  is  not  the  product  of 
vital,  interior  force  tends  to  a  formal,  stereotyped  method. 
Christian  oratory  is  the  highest  type  of  oratory,  for  the  reason, 
in  part,  that  it  is  a  product  of  such  reverence  for  and  sympa- 
thy with  the  truth  that  it  becomes  a  personal  power  in  belief 
and  conviction  and  thus  imparts  personal  force  to  the  utter- 
ances of  the  speaker.  Classical  oratory  laid  supreme  accent 
upon  the  relation  of  the  speaker  to  his  audience ;  Christian 
oratory  lays  proportionate  stress  upon  the  relation  of  the 
speaker  to  his  subject.  It  was  enough  for  the  classical  orator 
that  he  seem  to  be  interested  in  his  subject,  convinced  of  its 
truth  and  honest  in  its  enforcement.  Tliis  is  of  supreme  im- 
portance chiefly  in  order  that  he  may  persuade  his  hearers. 
But  the  Christian  orator  sjieaks  to  the  moral  judgments  and 
convictions  of  men,  and  he  must  not  only  seem  to  be  moved 


CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OP  PREACHING     ii 

by  the  truth,  he  must  be  possessed  by  it  and  must  speak  what 
he  believes.  It  is  this  note  of  reahty,  of  truth  in  the  inward 
parts,  that  has  individuaHzing  and  supreme  persuasive 
power. 

III.     Christian  Preaching  as  related  to  the  Audience 

Preaching  is  public  address,  not  private  conference.  Ety- 
mologically  it  suggests  publicity,  the  presence  of  an  assembly. 
It  presupposes  an  audience.  This  is  generally  a  mixed  assem- 
bly. The  original  Christian  assembly  was  homogeneous,  and 
preaching  was  an  address  to  this  Christian  assembly  by  one  of 
its  members  on  a  subject  of  common  Christian  interest. 
This  element  of  common  Christian  fellowship  gave  character 
to  the  address.  It  was  a  congregation  of  believers.  The 
speaker  was  identified  with  his  audience  and  voiced  the 
common  Christian  feeling,  faith,  conviction.  Hence  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  word  "homily"  (  oullXlu  )  as  applied  to  the 
preaching  of  the  early  Christian  church.  It  means  primarily 
companionship,  then  conference  among  companions,  and  then 
an  address  to  an  assembly  of  companions.  Thus  the  notion  of 
homogeneity  in  the  audience  is  recognized.  It  is  this  primitive 
conception  of  Christian  preaching  which  limits  it  to  the  work 
of  teaching  and  impressing  a  Christian  congregation,  to  which 
German  homiletics  has  attached  itself.  It  does  not  presuppose 
a  heterogeneous  audience,  and  it  treats  evangelistic  preaching 
as  an  exceptional  type  of  preaching  and  as  demanding  separate 
consideration.  But  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  treat  the  question 
in  this  manner.  It  ignores  the  miscellaneous  character  of  the 
ordinary  congregation.  If  it  were  admissible  to  assume  that 
all  our  religious  assemblies  are  composed  of  baptized  church 
communicants  and  that  all  these  communicants  represented  in 
full  measure  the  realities  of  Christian  experience,  there  would 
be  no  call  for  any  type  of  preaching  other  than  what  may  be 
designated  as  the  pastoral  type,  whose  aim  is  edification.     But 


12  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

the  miscellaneous  character  of  our  congregations  conditions  a 
call  for  two  types  of  preaching. 

I.  The  nucleus  of  every  religious  assembly  is  a  body  of 
Christian  worshippers.  The  audience  is  primarily  a  worship- 
ping congregation.  Preaching  must  recognize  that  fact.  It 
should  have  a  liturgical  quality.  It  should  regard  itself  as  a 
part  of  public  worship.  It  should  know  itself  as  an  offering 
of  Christian  faith  and  should  aim  at  the  promotion  of  a  devout 
spirit  and  at  furthering  the  interests  of  the  worshipping  assem- 
bly. We  do  not  separate  preaching  from  worship  as  we  do  not 
separate  the  preacher  from  the  liturgist  or  the  pastor.  Even 
in  mission  preaching,  we  recognize  the  element  of  worship. 
No  street  preacher  would  detach  his  address  from  song  and 
prayer  and  Scripture.  The  effectiveness  of  preaching,  even 
its  rhetorical  effectiveness,  is  conditioned  largely  by  its  associa- 
tion with  a  Christian  assembly,  and  by  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tian worship.  Preaching  is  the  better  for  the  worship,  and 
the  worship  for  the  preaching.  In  the  best  periods  the  close 
connection  between  preaching  and  worship,  between  the  pulpit 
and  the  altar,  has  been  recognized.  Divorce  between  them  has 
marked  a  degeneracy  in  both.  Luther  insisted  that  there 
should  be  no  worship  without  preaching.  "Where  God's  word 
is  not  preached,  it  is  better  neither  to  sing,  nor  pray,  nor  come 
together."  Calvin  laid  stress  upon  the  demand  for  preaching 
in  connection  with  the  Sacraments.  These  reformers  recog- 
nized preaching  as  the  centre  of  the  worship.  The  value  of 
worship  was  conditioned  by  preaching.  We  need  to  recog- 
nize the  reverse  as  equally  true.  Preaching  will  be  more 
simple  and  sympathetic,  more  spiritual  and  earnest  and  practi- 
cal in  its  tone,  more  free  and  unconventional,  in  a  word  more 
Christian.  Worship  will  dignify  preaching  and  preaching  will 
make  worship  more  intelligent  and  real  and  sul)stantial.  In 
a  word  worship  conditions  devout  preaching  and  preaching 
conditions  intelligent  worship.     To  make  preaching  and  wor- 


CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING     13 

ship  mutually  helpful  is  an  important  homiletic  problem. 
Something  is  gained  at  the  outset,  to  say  the  least,  by  recogniz- 
ing the  fact  that  the  liturgical  interest  is  an  important  part  of 
the  homiletic  problem,  that  preaching  presupposes  a  Christian 
assembly  and  that  it  has  for  its  object  the  promotion  of  the 
religious  interests  of  that  assembly. 

2.  But  the  entire  audience  is  almost  never  a  Christian  con- 
gregation in  the  full  evangelical  sense  of  the  word.  Hence 
preaching  should  have  an  evangelistic  as  well  as  pastoral 
quality.  Evangelism  is  a  homiletic  problem.  To  win  men  to 
the  Christian  life  is  as  truly  the  preacher's  aim  as  to  edify 
them  in  it.  It  is  a  false  conception  of  preaching  that  would 
limit  it  to  the  edification  of  a  Christian  congregation  and  would 
rule  out  evangelism  as  a  distinct  and  exceptional  interest, 
never  to  find  place  in  the  ordinary  church  service.  It  is  based 
upon  the  erroneous  conception  that  the  congregation  must  al- 
ways be  a  baptized  community  and  that  preaching  is  for  it 
alone.  The  missionary  element  is  essential  to  the  complete 
Christian's  conception  of  preaching.  It  should  never  be  per- 
manently divorced  from  pastoral  preaching.  Men  must  be 
won  as  well  as  built.  It  is  the  commission  of  the  church  to 
present  the  Gospel  through  its  servants  to  those  who  have  not 
received  it  into  their  practical  lives.  It  is  not  an  exceptional 
work  to  be  done  by  an  exceptional  class  of  men.  It  is  not 
necessary  to  divide  the  congregation  in  a  formal  manner.  The 
two  types  of  preaching  play  into  one  another.  Each  influences 
those  for  whom  it  is  not  primarily  designed.  But  failure  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  two  types  and  to  recognize  their  dis- 
tinctive objects  and  aims  is  a  serious  failure.  Evangelistic 
preaching  will  secure  warmth  and  cogency  to  pastoral  preach- 
ing and  pastoral  preaching  will  condition  the  permanent  value 
of  evangelistic  preaching.  Edification  supports  evangelism. 
Evangelism  gives  incentive  to  edification. 


14  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

IV.  Christian  Preaching  as  related  to  Form 
In  material,  spirit  and  aim,  as  is  already  apparent,  Christian 
preaching  has  certain  distinctive  qualities.  And  even  in 
method  or  form  it  demands  some  adaptation  to  these  distinctive 
qualities,  just  as  in  substance  it  demands  adaptation  to  Chris- 
tian thought  and  as  in  spirit  and  aim  it  demands  adaptation  to 
what  is  distinctive  in  Christian  principle  and  character.  But 
in  its  formal  aspects  in  general,  homiletics  belongs  to  the 
department  of  rhetoric  and  Christian  preaching  is,  as  to  its 
method,  not  substantially  difTerent  from  any  secular  oratorical 
product. 

I.  The  first  rhetorical  element  demanding  consideration  is 
structural  order.  The  scrnion  is  an  address  to  be  heard  and 
remembered.  It  must,  therefore,  have  an  orderly  develop- 
ment. r)ther\visc  it  would  not  fully  satisfy  the  demands  of 
public  address.  It  would  lack  rhetorical  impressiveness. 
Religious  themes  call  for  elevated,  comprehensive  and  orderly 
discussion.  Unity  of  impression  is  dependent  upon  coherent 
exposition.  Fragmentary  and  desultory  discourse  fails  to 
meet  the  needs  of  our  time  and  is  unworthy  of  the  great  themes 
of  religion.  It  is  inadequate  to  the  needs  both  of  preacher 
and  hearer.  It  is  of  course  to  be  conceded  that  the  preaching 
of  the  early  church  was  artless,  and  yet  it  moved  men.  The 
discourse  was  delivered  for  the  most  part  to  small  congrega- 
tions within  a  limited  area  and  was  a  free,  spontaneous, 
unartistic  utterance.  It  was  like  a  prayer  meeting  address  or 
a  Bible  reading.  Possibly  there  were  more  elaborate  addresses. 
The  tendency  was  increasingly  in  the  direction  of  such  ad- 
dresses. It  is  probable  that  the  discourses  commemorative  of 
the  martyrs,  of  which  unfortunately  we  have  no  adequate 
record  or  illustration,  promoted  this  tendency.  But  the  dis- 
courses recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  although  probably 
inadequate  to  illustrate  worthily  apostolic  preaching,  are  with- 
out rhetorical  order.     They  did  their  work  doubtless  and  met 


CHRISTIAN   CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING     15 

the  needs  of  the  time.  But  they  are  not  models  for  a  later 
age.  Homiletics  was  an  undeveloped  science.  In  the  changed 
relation  of  Christianity  and  of  the  church  to  the  world  at 
large,  a  better  method  was  demanded.  Patristic  preaching 
was  less  unelaborate  than  apo§tolic  preaching.  Cyprian  and 
Tertullian  were  orators.  Origm  marks  another  modification, 
Augustine  and  Chrysostom  still  another,  all  in  the  direction  of 
a  more  orderly  method.  Without  these  changes  preaching 
would  not  have  done  its  work.  Nor  without  orderly  method 
will  it  do  its  work  today.  We  are  heirs  to  it.  We  arc  in  re- 
action, it  is  true,  against  the  stately  elaborateness  of  our  homi- 
letic  ancestors,  and  greater  simplicity  of  method  is  advocated. 
But  simplicity  is  not  incoherence.  An  effective  pulpit  demands 
something  more  than  the  homily.  The  mind  is  not  at  home  in 
chaos.  The  heart  as  well  as  the  mind  craves  an  orderly  world. 
Truth  goes  home  along  the  lines  of  law.  Orderly  method  is 
more  than  a  rhetorical  interest.  True  rhetorical  interests  sub- 
serve religious  interests.  There  never  was  a  timiC  when 
effective  preaching  was  in  greater  demand  than  now.  There 
is  as  good  a  field  as  ever  for  the  true  preacher,  and  a  rational 
method  is  one  of  the  most  important  problems.  No  man  can 
ignore  the  laws  of  the  human  soul  and  make  his  speech 
effective. 

2.  Literary  form  is  another  rhetorical  element  in  preaching. 
Preaching  is  not  lecturing.  The  lecturer  may  use  the  language 
of  science.  The  preacher  uses  the  language  of  life.  Preach- 
ing is  for  the  average  mind,  not  for  the  exceptionally  trained 
mind ;  not  for  scholars,  nor  yet  for  children.  It  avoids  the 
extreme  of  intellectual  elaborateness  on  the  one  side  and  of 
intellectual  condescension  on  the  other.  A  preacher  must 
reach  his  audience.  It  is  his  calling  to  do  it.  He  can  not  do 
it  without  interpreting  abstract  thought  in  concrete  form. 
Popular  preaching  is  not  vulgar  preaching.  There  is  a  true 
and  a  false  popular  style.     The  preacher  is  an  educator.     He 


i6  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

should  respect  the  higher  and  the  permanent  interests  of  men. 
But  within  the  hmits  of  Christian  propriety  the  pulpit  should 
adjust  itself  to  the  capacity  of  the  average  man.  The  sermon 
'^^  is  not  a  treatise,  nor  a  lecture  nor  an  essay,  nor  a  prose  poem. 
From  all  these  it  differs  in  its  aim  and  so  in  its  form.  The 
ethical  aim  of  the  sermon  forbids  that  it  come  in  the  language 
of  the  understanding  wholly,  that  is,  in  a  purely  didactic  form 
as  the  treatise  or  the  lecture  may,  or  in  the  structureless  form 
of  the  essay  or  in  the  language  of  subjective  emotion  or  senti- 
ment or  fancy  as  the  poem  does.  It  combines  the  language 
of  the  understanding,  of  the  emotions  and  of  the  imagination. 
This  is  the  popular  style,  combining  dignity,  cogency  and 
grace.  Thus  the  sermon  must  be  our  ideal  in  the  discussion  of 
homiletic  problems.  The  ideal  of  the  lecture  with  its  didactic 
substance  addressed  to  the  understanding,  with  its  logical 
method  and  unemotional  style  whose  chief  mark  is  intellectual 
clearness,  is  inadequate.  Inadequate  is  the  ideal  of  the  homily 
with  its  scriptural  material,  its  structureless  method,  its  free 
and  unconventional  style,  whose  mark  is  simplicity,  speaking  at 
once  to  the  mind  and  the  heart.  Inadequate  the  hortation, 
with  its  emotional  fervor,  rapid  movement  and  its  concrete 
style.  Inadequate  the  essay  with  its  freedom  and  remote 
relatedness  of  thought,  or  the  poem  with  its  language  of  the 
imagination.  But  the  sermon  may  incorporate  elements  that 
are  common  to  them  all. 

To  recapitulate,  the  best  type  of  preaching  combines  the 
Biblical,  the  representative,  the  personal,  the  liturgical,  the 
evangelistic,  the  structural  and  the  literary  interest.  Under- 
value the  Biblical  element  and  preaching  will  deteriorate.  It 
will  lose  vitality.  It  will  fail  in  religious  aim  and  the  religious 
interests  of  men  will  suffer.  Undervalue  the  representative 
element  and  it  will  become  capricious  and  irresponsible. 
Undervalue  the  personal  element  and  it  will  lack  in  power  of 
conviction  and  persuasion.     Undervalue  the  liturgical  element 


CHRISTIAN  CONCEPTION  OF  PREACHING     17 

and  it  will  fail  to  impress  and  edify  the  spiritual  life.  Under- 
value the  evangelistic  element  and  it  will  lack  in  directness  and 
cogency.  Undervalue  the  structural  quality  and  it  will  fail  in 
cumulative  impression.  Undervalue  the  popular  elements  of 
literary  style  and  it  will  fail  in  concreteness  and  force.  Com- 
bine these  interests  and  we  get  the  best  results  of  pulpit  speech. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  PREACHING 

The  question  of  aim  will  constantly  occur  in  our  discussion 
of  homiletic  problems.  It  is  one  of  the  most  important  ques- 
tions with  which  the  preacher  must  concern  himself.  Many 
qualities  of  good  preaching  are  dependent  upon  it.  The  tone 
of  a  preacher  and  to  a  large  extent  his  method  are  determined 
by  his  aim.  And  if  the  subject  matter  of  one's  preaching 
conditions  the  aim.  it  is  equally  true  that  the  aim  will  be  influ- 
ential in  the  choice  of  material.  How  can  one  know  what  to 
preach  without  an  adequate  conception  of  the  general  and  the 
specific  object  of  his  preaching  and  without  a  worthy  purpose 
with  respect  to  his  object?  It  is  this  practical  significance  of 
the  question  that  sanctions  a  preliminary  discussion  of  its 
importance. 

I.    The  Importance  of  Homiletic  Aim 

I.  The  ethical  significance  of  preaching  suggests  it. 
Preaching  is  a  moral  act.  Something  is  to  be  accomplished. 
An  impression  is  to  be  made.  A  result  is  to  be  achieved. 
Someone  calls  it  a  "word-act."  Vinet  calls  it  a  "combat." 
Theremin  calls  it  a  "virtue."  Without  aim  this  ethical  signifi- 
cance is  ignored.  The  theory  that  preaching  is  merely  the 
expression  of  a  religious  experience  that  is  common  to 
preacher  and  hearer,  and  that  it  may  be  left  to  take  care  of 
itself  without  any  conscious  aim  in  the  preacher  other  than 
that  of  giving  expression  to  the  realities  of  his  own  inner  life, 
is  inadequate  and  misleading.  The  best  type  of  preaching  is 
conscious  of  its  object.     It  purposes  to  make  an  impression 


THE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  PREACHING  19 

and  knows  the  impression  it  seeks.  The  preacher  is  bound  to 
make  himself  effective.  The  study  of  his  art  is  largely  a  study 
of  his  aim,  and  this  is  more  than  a  matter  of  professional  pride, 
it  is  a  matter  of  moral  moment.  This  ethical  or  impressional 
element  gives  preaching  its  distinctive  place  in  the  conduct  of 
public  worship.  No  other  part  of  the  public  religious  service 
is  so  conscious  of  its  aim.  Neither  song  nor  prayer  can  be,  or 
should  be,  so  conscious  of  the  impression  it  would  make.  It 
is  true  that  every  act  of  public  worship  may  be  measurably 
impressive  in  intent,  otherwise  it  were  not  a  proper  object  of 
criticism.  But  preaching  seeks  impression  as  no  other  liturgi- 
cal act  does.  It  is  bent  on  bringing  something  to  pass.  It 
is  indeed  a  contest  with  man.  Into  no  other  service  do  we 
put  so  strong  an  ethical  purpose.  It  is  confessedly  easily  possi- 
ble to  overdo  it.  But  it  may  also  be  underdone.  Aim  then  is 
one  of  the  primal  elements  in  all  effective  preaching.  An  aim 
at  once  broad  and  definite.  Make  the  aim  too  broad  and 
preaching  will  lack  definiteness  and  directness.  Make  it  too 
definite  and  it  will  lack  scope.  It  will  be  narrow  and  may  be 
superficial.  It  should  be  broad  enough  to  be  educative,  and 
definite  enough  to  be  immediate  and  impressive ;  broad  enough 
to  cover  all  types  of  preaching,  all  the  complex  moral  and 
religious  interests  of  the  community,  the  church  and  the  con- 
gregation, and  all  varieties  of  ability  in  the  preacher,  and  defi- 
nite enough  to  be  true  to  any  specific  type  of  preaching,  to  hit 
the  specific  needs  of  the  community,  the  church  or  the  congre- 
gation or  of  any  particular  class  in  the  congregation,  or 
possibly  of  a  single  person  at  a  particular  time,  or  to  meet  the 
demands  of  a  particular  truth  or  the  needs  of  the  preacher's 
own  personality  at  any  particular  time.  Breadth  and  range 
are  essential  to  an  educative  pulpit.  It  will  cover  the  complex 
needs  of  the  community  and  the  complex  interests  of  truth. 
A  non-educative  pulpit  will  fail  of  its  vocation.  Reversely, 
definiteness  is  essential  to  immediate  moral  and  religious  re- 


20  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

suits.  Breadth  and  definiteness,  comprehensiveness  and  in- 
tensity find  expression  in  corresponding  types  of  preaching, 
the  pastoral  and  the  evangelistic  types,  and  meet  a  double  need. 
Pastoral  preaching  is  comprehensive  and  educative.  Evangelis- 
tic preaching  is  definite  and  intense.  A  proper  blending  of  the 
two  will  secure  range  and  vigor.  It  is  not  impossible  measur- 
ably at  least  to  harmonize  the  two  qualities.  Pastoral  preach- 
ing may  lack  definiteness  and  fervor.  Evangelistic  preaching 
may  lack  in  scope.  It  may  be  narrow.  When  each  influences 
the  other,  the  pastoral  sermon  will  be  the  more  vigorous  in  its 
directness,  will  squarely  hit  its  mark  because  it  has  a  mark  to 
hit,  and  the  evangelistic  sermon  will  find  a  good  background 
of  solid  Christian  thought  and  a  good  foreground  of  compre- 
hensive, educative  aim.  It  will  have  its  setting  in  a  broader 
thought  and  purpose  that  will  carry  it  beyond  the  immediate 
impression  and  at  the  same  time  will  not  fail  of  such  impres- 
sion. It  is  the  ethical  quality  in  preaching  that  accentuates 
the  need  of  such  combination. 

2.  The  rights  of  the  congregation  tax  the  preacher's  pur- 
pose. The  congregation  is  entitled  to  his  respect.  Its  pres- 
ence involves  certain  legitimate  expectations.  No  man  respects 
its  rights  who  preaches  aimlessly.  Nor  can  such  a  man  win 
its  respect.  A  public  speaker,  and  especially  a  Christian 
preacher,  can  not  safely  ignore  legitimate  expectations.  He 
speaks  to  intelligent  moral  beings.  As  such  they  have  claims 
on  him.  A  preacher  should  remember  that  he  is  a  debtor  to 
his  audience.  Responsibilities  are  of  course  reciprocal.  For 
the  audience  is  also  a  Christian  congregation.  But  for  the 
preacher  that  congregation  is  an  audience.  The  congregation 
invites  the  minister  to  lead  it  in  its  worship.  But  the  preacher 
invites  the  congregation  to  become  an  audience  and  to  listen 
to  him.  He  who  does  this  should  do  it  with  a  purpose.  He 
should  give  them  what  it  is  important  for  tiicm  to  hear  and 
should  show  that,  so  far  as  depends  on  him,  they  shall  hear 


THE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN  PREACHING       21 

and  shall  have  the  avail  of  it.  He  who  preaches,  preaches  at 
something.  A  sermon  that  is  good  is  good  for  something. 
There  is  no  good  that  is  good  for  nothing.  An  audience 
should  never  be  over-taxed  or  disappointed  in  its  confidence 
in  the  strength  of  a  preacher's  moral  purpose.  The  hearer  is 
entitled  to  know  what  the  preacher  means,  what  he  is  "driving 
at."  It  is  claimed  that  the  preaching  of  our  day  lacks  aim. 
The  truth  of  the  charge  may  be  questioned.  There  may  be 
a  lack  of  certain  aims,  but  this  does  not  prove  it  to  be  aimless. 
This  charge  is  generally  made  by  two  classes  of  critics.  They 
are  both  onesided  in  their  estimate.  The  professional  evan- 
gelist or  revivalist  criticises  the  preaching  that  does  not  aim  in 
every  sermon  at  immediate  evangelistic  results.  For  such 
preaching  "the  art  of  winning  souls  is  a  lost  art."  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  reply  that  the  evangelistic  type  of  preaching  is  not 
broad  enough  to  cover  the  entire  field.  It  is  doubtless  true 
that  there  is  a  lack  of  evangelistic  aim  in  even  the  best  of  our 
modern  preaching.  But  there  are  other  types  of  preaching 
and  other  aims  than  the  evangelistic,  and  what  the  evangelistic 
field  has  lost  the  ethical  field  has  won.  The  church  dogmatist 
on  the  other  hand  criticises  the  preaching  that  lacks  the  dog- 
matic or  doctrinal  note.  But  preaching  is  not  aimless  just  be- 
cause it  fails  to  be  apologetic  of  a  particular  type  of  theology. 
It  is  not  the  proper  aim  of  preaching  to  prop  or  fortify  any 
school  of  theology.  Doctrine  is  an  instrument,  not  an  end. 
The  man  who  works  his  truth  and  makes  it  available  does  not 
lack  aim.  But  it  is  certainly  true  that  in  so  far  as  the  preacher 
of  our  day  fails  in  any  important  aim  or  lacks  in  strength  of 
moral  purpose,  he  fails  in  respect  for  the  truth  and  for  his 
fellowmen. 

3.  Exposure  to  detrimental  influences  that  endanger  the 
preacher's  moral  earnestness  is  a  summons  to  renewal  of  moral 
purpose.  The  ethical  quality  of  preaching  is  always  threat- 
ened.    Compromising  influences  are  always  at  work.     They 


? 


22  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

vary  with  dififerent  periods,  but  are  always  a  temptation  to 
moral  weakness.  We  find  them  in  our  day.  They  should  put 
the  preacher  upon  his  guard. 

The  influence  of  secularism  threatens  the  moral  fibre  of  the 
preaching  of  our  day.  Commercialism,  of  which  we  hear  so 
much,  is  a  dominating  power  that  has  crept  into  the  church. 
The  pulpit  of  a  church  that  is  commercialized  is  easily  secular- 
ized. In  nothing  is  the  secular  tendency  so  readily  manifest 
as  in  the  preacher's  lack  of  moral  purpose.  No  moral  purpose 
in  the  preacher  means  the  presence,  even  though  unconscious 
or  half-conscious,  of  an  unworthy  secularized  purpose.  The 
agnostic  spirit  endangers  the  moral  power  of  the  preacher. 
Preaching  presupposes  a  positive  basis.  It  deals  with  ascer- 
tained results.  It  is  not  tentative  or  speculative  or  uncertain, 
because  it  rests  upon  experimental  truth.  But  the  preacher 
who  lives  in  a  realm  of  uncertainty,  who  is  always  rationaliz- 
ing, always  speculating  and  never  reaching  positive  results, 
will  preach  vaguely  and  aimlessly.  There  will  always  be  a  lack 
of  positiveness  and  definiteness  about  his  work.  A  dominating 
literary  spirit  endangers  the  moral  purpose  of  the  preacher. 
The  literary  interest  may  compromise  the  ethical  interest. 
The  sermon  may  become  an  end.  Any  man  who  is  more 
solicitous  about  the  literary  or  artistic  quality  of  the  sermon 
than  about  its  practical  moral  effectiveness  will  preach  without 
a  worthy  moral  aim.  Preaching  is  indeed  an  art.  But  it  is 
more.  It  is  a  moral  achievement.  Art  is  subordinate  to  aim. 
Or  rather,  aim  is  tributary  to  art.  Moral  purpose  is  one  of 
the  most  important  considerations  in  the  true  artistic  charac- 
ter of  a  moral  and  religious  address.  The  poet  may  speak  for 
the  love  of  speaking,  or  for  the  love  of  artistic  expression,  or 
with  supreme  reference  to  aesthetic  impression.  But  the 
preacher  must  aim  at  a  moral  result.  And  this  aim  is  in  fact 
necessary  to  his  art. 

4.     Practical   results   accentuate   the   importance   of   moral 


THE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN   PREACHING       23 

aim  in  preaching.  Strength  of  ethical  purpose  discloses  itself 
in  such  results,  results  in  the  preacher  and  in  his  work.  The 
effect  on  his  personal  and  official  manhood  is  manifest.  The 
whole  tone  of  the  man  with  respect  to  his  preaching  in  general 
and  with  respect  to  the  individual  sermon  is  affected.  Such  a 
man  is  not  in  the  pulpit  as  by  dire  necessity,  but  because  he 
has  something  to  do  there,  and  is  "straitened  until  it  be  accom- 
plished." He  will  bear  himself  as  one  who  means  to  have  a 
hearing.  Modestly  of  course,  but  in  downright  manly  fashion. 
One's  moral  purpose  affects  the  whole  tone  of  his  manhood. 
It  purifies,  enriches  and  greatens  his  whole  life.  Such  a  man 
can  be  neither  a  conceited  pedant  nor  a  fawning  sycophant,  but 
a  straight-forward  manly  man. 

The  effect  on  one's  work  will  be  equally  notable.  It  will 
condition  the  range  of  one's  preaching.  It  will  rule  out  all 
matter  and  all  method  that  are  inharmonious  with  the  highest 
Christian  conception  of  preaching.  Moral  purpose  is  an  im- 
portant factor  in  good  rhetoric  and  oratory.  The  element  of 
will  in  public  speech  might  well  receive  more  attention  than  it 
has  received.  A  strong,  steadfast,  immanent  purpose  will  lift 
the  tone  of  a  man's  entire  inner  life,  mental  and  emotional, 
and  he  will  be  the  more  effective  as  a  public  speaker,  if  he  have 
the  gift  of  public  speech  at  all.  The  words  of  Phillips  Brooks* 
touching  the  demand  for  cheerfulness,  hopefulness,  earnestness 
and  reality  in  the  preacher  are  golden  words.  It  is  precisely  this 
strong  ethical  purpose  that  is  associated  with  these  qualities. 
It  will  influence  his  method.  The  preaching  of  such  a  man 
starts  with  the  conviction  and  assumption  that  it  is  "worth 
just  what  it  effects."  Such  a  preacher  is  interested  in  his  work 
not  speculatively,  but  practically;  not  as  related  supremely 
to  thought  but  to  life.  The  man  who  holds  the  theory  that 
he  has  no  responsibility  with  respect  to  the   results  of  his 


*Yale  Lectures  on   Preaching.     Chap.  VIII.    "The  Value  of  the 
Human  Soul." 


24  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

preaching,  who  simply  says  his  say  and  lets  come  of  it  what 
will,  will  preach  aimlessly.  Such  a  man  can  never  fully  an- 
-^  swer  the  question,  "Why  do  I  preach?"  The  truth  is  not  an 
end  but  an  instrument.  This  conviction  will  influence  a  man 
in  his  method  of  handling-  his  material.  It  will  not  be  a  per- 
formance in  mental  gymnastics.  It  will  be  full  of  warmth 
and  energy  and  will  shape  itself  into  good,  effective  rhetorical 
and  oratorical  form.  It  will  be  a  vigorous  instrument  for  the 
enforcement  of  the  truth. 

II.  The  Central  and  Inclusive  Homiletic  Aim 
Preaching  is  only  one  of  the  many  methods  of  applying 
Christianity  to  the  needs  of  men  and  as  to  its  object  it  does 
not  differ  substantially  from  other  agencies.  They  all  have 
the  same  general  object.  Comprehensively  stated  the  aim  of 
-  the  preacher  is  the  rescue  and  reconstruction  of  manhood.  It 
assumes  that  men  need  to  be  delivered  from  the  dominating 
lower  life  of  the  flesh,  to  be  rescued  to  the  higher  life  of  the 
spirit,  and  to  be  shaped  into  a  spiritual  manhood.  Concretely 
stated  it  is  to  win  men  to  Christ,  and  to  build  them  into  his 
moral  completeness. 

I.  Note  here  a  recognition  of  the  individual  and  social  factors 
in  the  work.  The  rescue  and  reconstruction  are  not  wholly  of 
individual  men  in  their  isolation  from  their  fellows,  but  of  men 
in  their  associate  life.  It  is  the  building  in  and  the  building 
up  of  men  into  the  body  of  Christ.  We  can  not  stop  short 
of  this  in  our  statement,  and  we  cannot  get  beyond  it. 
Redemption  as  a  work  of  rescue  and  of  rebuilding  must  recog- 
nize these  two  factors,  which  after  all  are  practically  one.  The 
preacher's  object  can  not  be  the  recovery  and  edification  of  a 
few  elect  individual  men.  No  man  ever  finds  completeness  in 
himself.  The  aim  of  preaching  is  ultimately  the  completion 
of  the  body  of  Christ,  or  the  completion  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  or  the  completion  of  humanity.     We  come  to  the  perfect 


THE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN   PREACHING       25 

man,  to  the  perfect  stature  in  Christ,  only  in  our  associate 
life.  Men  must  be  won  to  a  common  life  and  built  up  together 
in  it.  "And  He  gave  some  to  be  apostles,  and  some  prophets 
and  some  evangelists  and  some  pastors  and  teachers,  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints,  unto  the  work  of  ministering,  unto 
the  building  up  of  the  body  of  Christ,  till  we  all  attain  unto  the 
unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  full  grown  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fulness  of  Christ."  * 

2.  Note  here  once  more  also  a  recognition  of  the  two 
actually  existing  classes  in  the  congregation,  i.  e.,  those  to  be 
won  and  those  already  won  who  are  to  be  educated  and  trained. 
The  existence  of  these  two  classes  creates  corresponding  de- 
mands upon  the  preacher.  We  can  not  deny  their  existence, 
and  we  can  not  ignore  their  claims.  The  preacher  should 
know  with  whom  he  deals,  and  should  shape  his  preaching 
with  reference  to  actual  needs,  otherwise  he  will  preach  aim- 
lessly. The  ordinary  congregation  is  not  composed  wholly 
of  baptized  persons,  or  of  those  who  by  virtue  of  their  baptism 
are  assumed  to  be  Christians  in  the  high  and  worthy  sense,  and 
who,  therefore,  need  only  nurture  and  training.  The  object 
of  such  preaching  could  only  be  to  conserve  and  develop  this 
assumed  already  existing  Christian  life.  Its  object  would  be 
edification  in  the  restricted  sense.  This  false  assumption  and 
the  object  based  upon  it  would  be  false  to  the  facts  and  inade- 
quate to  the  needs  of  the  congregation.  It  would  substitute 
a  part  for  the  whole  complex  aim  of  preaching.  Such  preach- 
ing might  easily  become  formal  and  perfunctory.  It  would  not 
deal  with  living  men  as  they  actually  are  before  the  preacher, 
and  it  would  become  unfruitful.  There  is  no  building  up 
without  building  in.  But  of  course  preaching  should  not  be 
prevailingly  hortatory.  We  exhort  men  that  they  may  be 
persuaded.     But    after   persuasion — what?     The   evangelistic 

*Eph.    4:  12,  13. 


26  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

type  of  preaching  can  never  be  final.  It  would  defeat  its  own 
aim  and  prove  fruitless  in  the  end.  "Winning  souls"  in 
the  narrow  and  sometimes  unreal  sense  can  never  be 
ultimate.  The  soul  is  not  saved  in  the  full  Christian  sense 
till  it  is  developed  and  trained  into  the  completeness  possible 
for  it. 

3.  Note  further  that  this  comprehensive  conception  of  the 
object  of  Christian  preaching  finds  place  for  all  the  elements 
involved  in  the  complete  conception  of  Christian  preaching 
itself.  Augustine,  following  substantially  the  classical  rhetori- 
cians and  orators,  thus  comprehensively  states  the  object  of 
Christian  preaching;  "The  Christian  orator  ought  to  teach, 
to  please,  to  persuade;  to  teach  so  as  to  instruct,  to  please  so 
as  to  hold,  to  persuade  so  as  to  overcome.  Teaching  for  the 
purpose  of  instruction  secures  intelligent  hearing;  pleasing 
for  the  purpose  of  holding  secures  free  listening;  persuading 
for  the  purpose  of  overcoming  secures  the  obedient  mind, 
heart,  conscience,  will."  No  better  statement  of  the  aim  and 
characteristics  of  true  Christian  preaching  could  be  made. 
The  obedient  mind,  heart,  conscience,  will — this  is  the  ultimate 
aim.  To  bring  the  whole  man  under  the  sway  of  the  truth, 
tiirough  the  forces  of  personality  and  of  truth  that  play 
through  human  speech.  All  the  elements  of  effective  speech 
are  necessary  to  secure  this  result.  The  adjustment  of  these 
elements,  with  which  Augustine  undertook  to  deal,  in  order  to 
achieve  the  result,  is  a  rhetorical  question  with  which  we  need 
not  now  concern  ourselves.  Just  here  it  is  pertinent  simply  to 
suggest  that  these  elements  ultimately  resolve  themselves  into 
the  didactic  and  persuasive  elements  of  speech,  and,  as  we  shall 
see,  they  are  both  necessary  to  the  work  of  rescuing  and  build- 
ing men.  To  teach,  to  impress,  to  persuade  men  by  the  power 
of  the  truth  and  of  personality,  the  organ  of  truth,  thus  to 
bring  the  whole  manhood,  mind,  heart,  conscience,  will,  under 
the  sway  of  truth  and  of  the  spirit  of  truth, — this  is  to  rescue 


THE  AIM   OF   CHRISTIAN   PREACHING        27 

men  and  to  build  them  into  Christian  manhood.  This  is  re- 
demption.    And  this  is  the  end  of  the  preacher's  work. 

4.  Note  finally  that  we  have  here  an  adequate  recognition 
of  the  full  significance  of  edification  as  the  object  of  the 
preacher's  work.  This  notion  of  building  is  a  New  Testament 
conception  and  is  used  somewhat  variously.  Let  us  look  at  it 
in  its  relation  to  the  work  of  preaching  in  its  comprehensive 
significance,  following  somewhat  closely  the  natural  and  ety- 
mological suggestiveness  of  the  word.  The  first  thing  sug- 
gested is  an  ideal  to  be  realized.  Building  presupposes  a  plan, 
a  pattern,  an  ideal.  Culture  in  its  highest  conception  is  the 
building  of  manhood  after  a  pattern.  Christian  culture  pre- 
supposes a  Christian  ideal,  a  Christian  pattern,  after  which 
the  work  proceeds.  With  this  ideal  the  preacher  deals.  It  is 
his  task  to  exalt,  to  advocate  and  to  apply  this  ideal.  For  the 
individual  man  this  ideal,  this  pattern,  this  standard  is  the  per- 
fection of  Christ.  Preaching  is  the  advocacy,  and  its  aim  the 
production  of  a  Christian  manhood  after  the  type  of  Christ. 
For  the  community  of  individuals,  for  the  church,  for  human- 
ity collectively,  the  ideal  is  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  final 
purpose  of  the  church  is  the  realization  of  the  ideal  of  a  divine 
society;  i.e.,  the  building  together  of  humanity  into  a  social 
organism,  after  the  pattern  of  a  heavenly  society.  The  ulti- 
mate object  of  Christian  preaching,  therefore,  is  the  spiritual 
unity, — completeness  and  effectiveness  of  the  church  or  of  the 
kingdom  of  God,  which  the  church  represents. 

The  second  factor  in  this  conception  is  the  winning  of  the 
material  to  be  built.  The  material  to  be  built  is  men.  They 
must  be  won  before  they  can  be  built.  They  may  be  won 
gradually,  and  unconsciously  to  themselves.  But  somehow 
they  must  be  won.  They  must  be  illumined,  awakened, 
changed  in  their  moral  dispositions,  in  a  word  won  to  Christ, 
before  they  can  be  started  aright  and  before  they  can  be  de- 
veloped and  trained  into  moral  and  spiritual  manhood,  or  be- 


> 


28  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

fore  the  processes  of  moral  and  spiritual  development  can  go 
most  successfully  on.  The  process  of  edification,  therefore, 
in  so  far  as  it  involves  the  winning  of  material,  the  right  start- 
ing point,  the  right  foundation  of  the  spiritual  structure, 
includes  all  that  is  contained  in  the  terms  conversion  and  re- 
generation as  the  initial  point.  This  lifting  of  manhood  out  of 
dominance  to  the  lower  life  of  the  flesh,  this  modification  of 
the  moral  and  spiritual  manhood,  which  is  called  the  new  birth, 
is  the  proper  ground  for  edification  into  the  manhood  of 
Christ.  What  has  been  called  the  process  of  sanctification  is 
only  the  process  of  continued  growth  into  the  completeness 
of  moral  and  spiritual  manhood,  which  rests  upon  the  founda- 
tion of  a  moral  charge.  Preaching  is,  of  course,  only  one  of 
the  agencies  through  which  the  start  is  made.  It  takes  a  great 
many  moral  agencies  to  renew  men.  But  the  work  of  the 
preacher  is  prominent.  It  deals  with  all  those  truths,  those 
principles,  those  impulses  and  incentives  that  start  character 
aright. 

A  third  factor  is  the  process  by  which  the  building  work 
goes  on  from  its  starting-point  and  by  which  the  ideal  is 
ultimately  realized.  It  is  a  process  of  development  in  sym- 
metrical upreach  and  outreach  of  Christian  character  till  the 
full  pattern  is  realized.  Again  preaching  is  only  one  of  the 
agencies  in  the  process,  but  it  contributes  much  to  the  develop- 
ment of  such  height  and  range  and  symmetry  of  Christian 
character  as  brings  manhood  to  its  ultimate  goal.  It  deals 
therefore,  as  already  indicated,  with  the  whole  man.  mind, 
conscience,  heart,  will.  Men  grow  strongly,  broadly,  sym- 
metrically only  as  religion  touches  the  mental,  moral  and  spirit- 
ual manhood.  The  process  includes  also  the  growth  of  the 
whole  body  of  Christ  into  the  unity  and  completeness  of  organ- 
ized life. 

But  the  final  factor  is  the  instruments  or  agencies  employed 
in  tiie  building  work.     There  arc  many  agencies  but  they  in- 


THE  AIM   OF   CHRISTIAN   PREACHING        29 

elude  various  types  of  preaching.  Edification  as  the  aim  of 
preaching  in  the  broader  sense  accentuates  the  demand  for 
comprehensiveness  in  the  work  and  so  rescues  it  from  a  narrow 
provinciaHsm  and  one-sidedness.  Two  instruments  especially 
are  employed  in  the  work  of  preaching.  They  are — to  use 
Phillips  Brooks'  terms — truth  and  personality.  In  other 
words  the  agencies  or  methods  of  preaching  employed  are 
teaching  and  persuasion.  And  this  brings  us  back  once  more 
from  another  point  of  departure  to  the  two  chief  factors  in 
preaching,  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made.  Let  us 
consider  them  a  little  more  fully. 

The  work  of  building  character  presupposes  a  didactic 
foundation.  Foundations  must  be  solid.  We  build  character 
on  solid  truth.  Preaching  presupposes  the  interpreting  of 
truth  to  the  mind  and  conscience.  At  the  outset  edification 
is  not  other  than  education.  The  truth  that  builds  up  Chris- 
tian character  must  be  Christian  truth.  Growth  into  the 
likeness  of  Christ  is  the  product  of  preaching  Christ. 
Such  preaching  deals  with  the  person,  the  teaching,  the  work 
of  Christ.  Christ  the  source,  the  inspiration,  the  pattern  and 
the  aim  of  all  Christian  life.  The  entire  message  of  the  Gos- 
pel is  summed  up  in  Christ.  Christ  only  can  build  into  Christ- 
likeness.  The  personality  of  Christ  and  his  message  must  be 
interpreted.  The  preacher  is  fundamentally  an  interpreter,  an 
interpreter  of  God,  of  man,  of  life,  of  Providence,  of  history 
in  the  light  of  revelation,  and  of  all  human  life  in  the  light  of 
redemption.  But  above  all  he  is  the  interpreter  of  Jesus 
Christ.  He  is  primarily  a  prophet,  not  a  priest.  Christ's 
preaching  was  largely  teaching — the  interpretation  of  spirit- 
ual realities.  So  was  apostolic  preaching.  Paul  was  pre- 
eminently a  teacher  of  religion.  The  prominence  of  the 
element  of  truth  and  of  teaching  in  the  work  of  preaching 
accentuates  the  need  of  an  intelligent  building  of  character. 
It  is  claimed  that  Christianity  is  the  only  religion  that  has 


30  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

been  or  can  be  successfully  taught,  and  that,  therefore,  it  is 
the  only  successful  character-building  religion.  It  appeals  to 
human  intelligence.  Men  were  impressed  with  the  words  of 
wisdom  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus.  Solid  character  must 
have  an  intelligent  foundation.  Paul  discredited  an  over- 
emotional  type  of  preaching,  and  gave  preference  to  the  word 
of  instruction  on  the  ground  that  it  edifies  character.  His 
bishop  must  be  "didaktikos" — "apt  to  teach."  He  who  aims 
at  the  production  of  an  intelligent  religious  life  in  his  preaching 
will  appeal  to  the  intelligence  of  men.  This  is  the  condition 
of  permanent  success.  Intelligent  conviction  is  the  basis  of 
solid  character.  Perversities  of  understanding  abound  in  our 
day.  Men  are  prccommitted  in  wrong  mental  judgments  as 
well  as  in  wrong  moral  bias,  and  all  this  renders  the  preacher's 
task  the  harder.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  men  know  the  truth 
better  than  they  obey  it.  This  is  measurably  true.  But  the 
fact  is  that  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  wrong  headedness,  even 
among  Christian  people,  as  well  as  wrong  heartedness.  But 
what  sort  of  truth  is  edifying  truth?  Not  all  truth  is  edifying, 
simply  because  it  is  truth.  Not  all  preachers  have  learned 
this.  The  impracticable  preacher,  who  is  always  the  unedify- 
ing  preacher,  is  the  one  who  fails  to  adjust  his  truth  to  the 
condition  of  his  hearers.  There  must  be  a  certain  corre- 
spondence between  the  truth  presented  and  the  state  of  the 
hearer,  just  as  there  must  be  a  correspondence  between  the 
material  that  goes  into  a  building  and  the  character  and  design 
of  the  building.  Men  are  edified  when  the  trutli  presented  is 
fitted  to  their  needs.  The  matter  of  a  discourse  may  be  true 
and  its  presentation  good,  but  it  must  find  the  hearer,  it  must 
come  home  to  him,  or  he  is  not  edified.  The  homespeaking 
truth  is  the  truth  that  meets  a  real  need. 

The  work  of  edification  presupposes  an  influence  upon  the 
heart  and  will  as  well  as  upon  the  mind.  Teaching  presup- 
poses the  power  of  truth.     Persuasion  presupposes  the  power 


THE  AIM  OF  CHRISTIAN   PREACHING       31 

of  personality.  Preaching  includes  not  only  the  instrumental- 
ity of  truth  but  the  effort  of  a  living  man.  Truth  and  life. 
There  is  no  edification  without  persuasion.  Men  are  neither 
won  nor  built,  neither  built  in  nor  built  up  without  speech  that 
goes  out  of  the  intellectual  into  the  emotional,  affectional  and 
volitional  parts  of  a  man.  That  is  not  preaching  that  ends  in 
an  appeal  to  the  mind  only.  "We  persuade  men,"  persuade  as 
well  as  teach.  The  building  is  of  human  character.  Growth 
presupposes  life.  It  presupposes  the  impelling  energy  of  a 
soul  moved  to  its  depths,  if  it  will  move  other  souls.  Here 
too,  the  principle  of  correspondence  is  necessary.  There  must 
be  a  certain  common  ground  between  the  speaker  and  the 
hearer,  as  well  as  harmony  between  the  quality  of  truth  and  the 
needs  of  the  hearer.  We  are  not  edified  by  what  is  strange 
and  foreign.  A  sort  of  Christian  mind  must  be  created  be- 
fore edification  is  possible.  Men  must  become  measurably 
familiar  with  the  truths  and  facts  of  Christianity  before  they 
do  their  best  work.  The  home  truths  are  not  the  strange  and 
unfamiliar  truths.  The  old  truths  intelligently  and  freshly 
interpreted  edify.  And  the  old  truths  come  home  to  us  in  the 
language  of  common  life,  language  that  is  familiar  in  its 
imagery  and  its  terminology.  Men  are  not  edified  by  a  strange 
and  to  them  barbarous  speech.  To  produce  a  state 
of  mind  in  the  hearer  corresponding  to  the  preacher's 
state  of  mind,  the  forces  of  his  personality  must  find 
a  language  instrument  fit  to  translate  and  to  transmit 
these  forces  and  so  to  impart  themselves  that  they  will  awaken 
what  is  correspondent  in  the  soul  of  the  hearer.  It  is  this 
element  of  persuasion  that  marks  the  distinction  between 
teaching  and  preaching.  Teaching  is  a  factor  in  preaching, 
but  it  is  not  the  only  one.  We  teach  that  men  may  know.  We 
preach  that  they  be  and  do.  In  teaching  the  ethical  factor 
is  indirect  and  remote.  In  preaching  it  is  direct  and  imme- 
diate.    The  sermon  is  not  for  itself,  not  for  its  theology,  not 


32  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

for  the  intelligence  and  culture  of  its  hearers,  but  for  the  pro- 
duction of  character  and  the  rej^ulation  of  conduct.  The  best 
didactic  preaching,  therefore,  which  aims  at  edification  will  be 
persuasive.  Just  here  is  the  unique  power  of  the  pulpit.  The 
press  can  teach.  But  it  is  only  the  living  man  that  can  preach. 
When  teaching  is  vitalized  by  the  power  of  an  earnest  sympa- 
thetic human  soul,  it  becomes  persuasive,  and  may  be  well 
nigh  irresistible.  It  is  the  truth  that  is  borne  along  the  cur- 
rents of  human  feeling  that  subdues  the  souls  of  men.  It  must 
be  presented  with  a  tone  of  cheerfulness  and  hopefulness. 
The  great  hopes  of  the  Gospel  rally  the  preacher  to  a  conta- 
gious enthusiasm.  Its  lofty  tone  of  authority  summons  him 
also  to  a  tone  of  moral  certitude  answering  to  it.  Preaching  is 
not  persuasive  in  proportion  as  it  lacks  moral  conviction  and 
purpose.  It  appeals  with  assurance  to  the  human  conscience 
and  heart  and  will.  The  persuasive  preacher  is  a  modest  and 
devout  man,  but  he  does  not  potter  with  uncertainties,  nor 
give  away  his  case.  He  speaks  with  the  authority  of  positive 
conviction.  Christianity  can  not  be  persuasively  presented  if 
the  preacher  allows  himself  or  his  message  to  be  patronized  by 
the  high  and  mighty  democratic  and  agnostic  twentieth  century. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER 

There  are  certain  qualities  in  every  preacher,  certain  gifts, 
on  which  the  success  of  his  work  depends.  They  are  gifts  of 
nature  and  of  grace,  developed  by  assiduous  culture.  The 
man  who  undertakes  to  preach  must  have  some  of  them  or 
he  is  no  preacher.  But  an  ideal  combination  of  these  gifts 
has  of  course  never  been  realized.  There  is  no  ideal 
preacher,  never  has  been  and  never  will  be.  Indeed  it  is  dififi- 
cult,  if  not  impossible,  to  conceive  the  ideally-gifted  preacher. 
There  are  many  conceivable  ideals.  To  combine  them  all 
into  one  supreme  type,  and  to  conceive  of  them  as  realized  in 
any  one  man  is  an  impracticable,  not  to  say  an  impossible 
mental  task.  The  best  preachers  represent  different  types. 
They  suggest  typical  ideals,  correspondent,  but  they  hardly 
suggest  the  possibility,  even  ideally  of  combining  them  all 
into  one  supreme  type.  No  one  man  has  ever  combined  all 
the  gifts  of  the  great  preacher.  Augustine  must  have  com- 
bined many  of  them  in  generous  measure.  Tertullian,  Cyp- 
rian, Chrysostom  and  the  Cappadocians  in  larger  measure. 
The  classic  preachers  of  the  Gallic  Church,  Bossuet,  Bour- 
daloue,  IMassillon  and  Saurin  among  the  Protestants,  Luther 
among  the  Germans,  and  among  the  moderns,  Robertson 
and  Beecher — all  these  were  great  preachers.  But  how 
varied  and  how  different  their  gifts,  so  varied  and  so  different 
that  their  points  of  contrast  are  quite  as  striking  as  their 
points  of  likeness.  But  it  is  not  necessary  that  one  possess 
the  gifts  of  these  great  masters,  either  in  degree  or  in  type 
of  combination,  in  order  to  be  a  respectable  preacher.     It  is 


34  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

not  necessary  to  be  a  great  preacher  in  order  to  be  a  preacher 
at  all.  The  work  of  the  church  is  done  and  well  done  by 
ordinary  men.  It  is  only  the  elect  few  that  possess  many 
and  great  gifts  for  preaching  and  in  well-balanced  combina- 
tion. The  larger  number  have  but  few  and  meagre  gifts, 
and  yet  they  are  not  without  success  in  teaching  and  persuad- 
ing men.  Our  task  at  present  is  the  consideration  of  some  of 
those  qualities  that  are  highly  important  for  any  preacher 
and  that  may  be  cultivated. 

I.     Classification  of  Gifts 

I.  Mental  gifts.  The  preacher,  as  we  have  seen,  is  an 
interpreter.  It  is  his  task  to  make  intelligible  and  to  vindi- 
cate the  rationality  and  moral  value  of  what  he  proclaims  to 
be  the  truth.  The  interpreter  must  succeed  in  interpreting. 
He  must  have  the  requisite  mental  gifts  for  his  task.  Many 
and  varied  intellectual  gifts  are  desirable  in  a  preacher.  But 
there  is  a  certain  group  of  qualities  that  is  of  preeminent 
importance.  That  the  preacher  should  be  a  dialectician  as 
well  as  a  rhetorician  was  Luther's  estimate  of  his  requisite 
intellectual  equipment.  Luther  meant  that  he  should  com- 
bine power  to  think  discriminatingly,  connectedly  and  funda- 
mentally with  power  to  express  his  thought  in  eflfective  popu- 
lar speech.  As  a  rational  thinker  he  must  speak  convitic- 
ingly  to  the  mind  and  as  an  effective  orator  he  must  speak 
persuasively  to  the  emotions  and  will.  Mental  discrimina- 
tion, mental  coherence,  and  mental  range  should  be  combined 
with  vivid  imagination,  fervid  emotion  and  practical  tact. 
This  answers  to  the  two  chief  demands  of  the  audience  that 
the  preacher  do  justice  to  the  subject  and  to  the  object  of  the 
discussion.  The  dialectician  will  do  justice  to  his  subject. 
The  rhetorician  will  do  justice  to  his  object.  The  one  will 
convince  by  a  thorough  grasp  and  handling  of  his  theme,  the 
other  will  persuade  by  a  complete  identification  of  himself 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  35 

with  his  audience  and  by  an  effective  style  of  address.  We 
are  dealing  now  with  those  mental  gifts  that  are  requisite  for 
the  presentation  of  the  subject.  Of  course  we  need  not  insist 
upon  using  Luther's  term  dialectician,  nor  undertake  to  vin- 
dicate the  claim  that  it  should  stand  for  all  that  Luther  would 
have  put  into  it.  The  scholastic  dialectician  does  not  get  a 
hearing  in  our  day.  But  let  us  put  our  own  meaning  into 
the  term.  Dialectic  gifts  may  stand  for  mental  discrimina- 
tion, mental  coherence,  and  mental  range,  for  the  requisite 
sharpness  of  mind  to  distinguish  the  elements  of  thought  in 
a  subject,  for  the  requisite  logical  power  to  relate  the  thought 
of  the  subject  and  for  the  requisite  power  to  grasp  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  subject  fundamentally.  It  is  certainly  desirable 
that  the  preacher  have  these  mental  qualities  and  that  he 
cultivate  them  assiduously.  Let  us  consider  them  for  a 
moment.  Mental  discrimination.  The  preacher  has  to 
make  himself  intelligible  to  the  average  audience.  Whatever, 
therefore,  the  quality  of  his  thought,  it  must  be  clear  and  dis- 
criminating. It  may  be  subtle  or  it  may  be  obvious  and  near 
at  hand,  it  may  be  ingenious  or  it  may  be  commonplace,  it 
may  be  suggestive  or  it  may  be  exhaustive,  it  may  be  pene- 
trating or  it  may  be  discursive,  it  may  be  intuitive  or  it  may 
be  argumentative,  it  may  be  imaginative  or  it  may  be  philo- 
sophical— whatever  the  quality  of  the  thought  it  should  have 
the  element  of  clarity  in  an  eminent  degree.  No  man  can 
vindicate  his  vocation  to  interpret  Christian  truth  to  human 
intelligence,  if  he  cannot  make  himself  intelligible.  The 
prophet  must  succeed  in  getting  his  message  out  without 
obfuscating  his  hearers.  He  must  speak  straight.  His  func- 
tion as  messenger  and  the  character  of  his  message  demand 
it.  A  foggy  preacher  is  not  a  preacher.  What  a  man  is 
summoned  to  make  clear  should  not  be  muddled.  The 
truths  of  religion  are  important  and  they  are  not  easy  to 
handle.     The  preacher  owes  it  to  his  audience,  to  his  subject, 


36  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

to  his  vocation  and  to  himself  that  he  train  himself  in  habits 
of  clear,  discriminating  thinking  to  the  utmost  of  his  power. 
Without  such  thinking  no  audience  can  be  permanently,  and 
in  the  highest  degree,  profited.     Especially  if  a  preacher  has 
anything  that  he  regards  as  new  to  present,  and  which  his 
hearers  should  clearly  understand,  is  he  beholden  to  them  to 
clear  it  up  or  let  some  one  else  undertake  it,  or  wait  until  he 
is  able  at  least  to  speak  intelligently.     It  is  unfortunate  that 
much  of  what  calls  itself  "new  theolog>'"   is  unintelligible, 
even  to  those  who  are  not  inhospitable  to  it.     If  this  quality 
of  unintelligibleness  were  inherent  in  the  theology  itself  it 
would  discredit  it.     But  if  it  is  in  its  advocacy,  it  discredits 
the    preacher.       Any    new    theological    movement    in    the 
churches  is  a  summons  to  the  preacher  to  exceptionally  clear 
thinking  and  clear  speaking.     The  members  of  our  churches 
have  a  right  to  know  what  a  preacher  is  "driving  at."     We 
do  not  think  of  John  Calvin  as  a  great  preacher.     He  was  not 
an  orator.     Nor  was  he  a  rhetorician.     He  met  only  a  single 
aspect  of  Luther's  conception  of  a  preacher.     But  he  met 
that  with  conspicuous  success.     It  was  not  merely  that  he 
was  a  master  of  dialctic.     He  was  master  of  what  it  stands 
for.     In  a  wonderful  measure  he  had  the  gift  of  mental  per- 
spicacity.    It  was  a  substitute  for  the  gifts  of  the  rhetorician 
and  orator.     His  preaching  was  a  notable  triumph  of  the 
Christian  understanding.     There  is  of  course  more  than  one 
way  of  realizing  the  homiletic  virtue  of  intellectual  perspi- 
cacity.    Preachers,    who,    unlike    Calvin,    present    the    truth 
suggestively,    or    illustratively,    rather    than    analytically    or 
dialectically,  may  be  clear  preachers.     It  is  not  the  clearness  of 
scientific  exactness   or   dcfiniteness   but   of   rhetorical   lumi- 
nousness.     The  most  effective  modern  preachers  are  of  this 
type.     But,  however  it   may  be  realized,  perspicuity  is  the 
demand. 

With   mental   discrimination    is   associated   the   power   to 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  37 

hold     thought     in  its     logical     relations.     An     address     de- 
mands connated  and  coherent  thought.     An  essay  may  be 
fragmentary  and  remote  in  its  relations  of  thought.       An 
address  must  have  a  manifest  unity.     To  discuss  a  subject  in 
a  public  address  is  to  unfold  it  in  its  logical  relations.     It  is 
to  discover  the  different  centres  or  groups  of  thought  that 
lie  hidden  beneath  the  subject  and  to  bring  them  out  to  view. 
This   demands   the  training  of  the  consecutive   thinker.     A 
writer  of  pulpit  essays  is  not  the  best  type  of  preacher.     No 
one  can  successfully  interpret  Christian  truth  who  fails  to 
present  it  in  its  inner  connections  of  thought  in  the  form  of 
a  connected  address.     With  all  this  is  still  further  connected 
the  power  to  grip  a  subject  fundamentally,  to  grasp  its  essen- 
tial principles,  to  trace  it  in  its  wide  ranging  and  fundamental 
relations.     The  best  type  of  interpretation  consists  in  grasp- 
ing the  central  principle  of  a  truth  and  in  showing  how  it 
ranges  in  various  realms  of  experience.     The  best  preachers 
of  our  day  deal  thus  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  and  take  them  out  for  illustration  into  various 
spheres  of  human  life.     This  capacity  of  mental  insight,  of 
mental  coherence,  and  of  mental  grasp  and  range  may  be 
cultivated.     He  who  would  vindicate  his  vocation  as  an  inter- 
preter will  not  fail  to  do  it. 

2.  Emotional  gifts.  Sympathy  is  the  fundamental  emo- 
tional quality  that  is  requisite.  The  true  preacher  is  preemi- 
nently a  man  of  fellow  feeling.  The  gift  of  sympathy  is  the 
capacity  of  self-identification  with  objects  external  to  our- 
selves. Turned  Godward  it  becomes  the  prophetic  gift.  It 
is  by  the  power  of  sympathy  that  the  prophet  becomes  con- 
sciously identified  with  God.  It  is  more  than  mental  self- 
identification.  It  is  through  the  consciousness  of  moral  and 
emotional  as  well  as  mental  alliance  with  God  that  the 
prophet  appropriates  and  becomes  identified  with  his  mes- 
sage.    It  is  this  consciousness  that  is  involved  in  the  estate 


38  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

of  prophetic  inspiration.  Any  man  who  is  intehigently  con- 
scious of  fellowship  with  God,  who  recognizes  the  truth  he 
preaches  as  having  its  source  in  God,  and  who  is  thoroughly 
committed  to  it,  as  his  message,  speaks  for  God,  and  such  a 
man  knows  something  of  the  prophetic  spirit.  Such  a  man 
will  not  fail  to  speak  with  power.  There  will  be  the  ring  of 
reality  in  his  utterance.  The  more  strongly  the  truth,  re- 
demptive truth,  as  related  to  personal  beings,  gets  hold  of  a 
man,  the  more  masterful  he  will  be.  To  recognize  the  truth 
as  God's,  something  held  in  trust  to  be  communicated  to 
one's  fellowmen,  to  know  that  one  enters  into  sympathetic 
alliance  with  God's  great  purposes,  that  one  thinks  God's 
thoughts  of  mercy  after  Him,  and  that  in  uttering  them  he 
gives  God's  message,  this  is  a  condition  of  moral  power  in 
the  preacher's  work.  Christian  oratory  of  the  highest  sort 
has  a  basis  not  unlike  that  of  dramatic  art.  The  power  of 
the  dramatic  actor  is  in  the  fact  that  he  is  for  the  time 
identified  with  the  character  he  impersonates.  In  ef- 
fect he  is  that  character.  He  who  reaches  his  fellow- 
men  must  leave  the  impression  that  he  is  completely 
identified  with  what  he  claims  to  represent.  His  speech 
should  have  an  earnestness  and  reality  correspondent  to 
the  weight  and  importance  of  what  he  says.  The  man  who 
speaks  in  the  enthusiasm  of  a  great  inspiration  may  make  mis- 
takes. The  spirit  of  the  prophet  is  not  always  subject  to 
the  prophet.  But  it  is  far  better  to  make  mistakes  than 
in  one's  uiisympathy  to  leave  the  impression  of  moral 
unreality. 

But  not  until  sympathy  is  turned  manward  does  it  realize 
the  full  measure  of  its  power.  It  becomes  preeminently  an 
oratorical  requisite.  The  preacher  moves  men  by  entering 
into  their  needs  with  an  intelligent  sympathy.  He  has  the 
capacity  to  be  wrought  upon  on  the  one  side  by  the  truth 
presented,  and  on  the  other  side  by  the  human  beings  to 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  39 

whom  it  is  presented.  The  more  a  man  loves  his  fellowmen, 
the  more  he  can  be  moved  by  them  and,  other  requisites 
given,  the  more  he  can  move  them.  True  oratorical  feeling 
is  reproductive.  We  move  men  by  sharing  the  state  of  mind 
that  we  wish  to  produce  in  them.  The  true  preaching 
impulse  is  the  impulse  of  a  loving  mind.  The  special  pleader, 
the  arrogant  dogmatist,  the  man  who  loves  himself,  or  who 
loves  his  opinions,  more  than  he  loves  his  fellowmen,  cannot 
be  a  true  preacher.  He  may  be  a  stalwart  pulpiteer,  but  he 
lacks  the  sympathies  of  a  preacher,  I  do  not  say  that  a 
preacher  must  be  a  man  of  quick  and  fiery  emotion.  Some 
of  the  great  preachers  of  the  church  have  indeed  been  such. 
But  sympathy  has  many  ways  of  expressing  itself.  In  some 
way,  however,  it  must  make  itself  felt  or  no  man  can  move 
his  fellowmen.  It  is  not  enough  to  have  it,  one  must  impart 
it.  Sympathy  is  the  source  of  homiletic  tact.  Tact  is  sus- 
ceptibility to  another's  touch,  the  sense  of  touch,  thence 
capacity  to  touch  others,  that  is,  capacity  or  facility  of  self- 
adjustment  or  self  adaptation  of  such  sort  as  enables 
one  to  touch  others.  The  basis  of  this  susceptibility  is 
sympathy.  He  who  is  susceptible  to  impressions  from 
others,  because  he  loves  them,  is  the  one  who  with  skill  will 
adjust  himself  to  them.  The  most  earnest  and  devoted  and 
effective  preachers  tell  us  that  they  cannot  grip  the  souls  of 
their  hearers  without  a  feeling  of  sympathy  that  is  a  great 
compassionate  yearning  of  heart  for  them.  That  Paul  was 
able  to  "become  all  things  to  all  men"  is  a  disclosure  of  his 
homiletic  tact,  whose  source  was  sympathy.  He  identified 
himself  with  men  and  adjusted  himself  to  them  that  he  might 
win  them.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  mental  skill  merely,  of 
intellectual  nimbleness.  It  is  a  matter  of  fellow-feeling. 
The  homiletic  impulse  is  a  combination  of  the  didactic  and 
the  sympathetic  impulse.  To  the  intellectual  impulse  to 
impart  to  others  the  truth  that  has  become  a  conscious  per- 


40  THE  WORK  OF  THE  TREACHER 

sonal  treasure,  in  order  that  they  may  share  the  treasure,  is 
added  tlie  impulse  of  sympathetic  feeHng^  that  desires  spiritual 
fellowship.  Trained  Christian  feeling  is  far  more  important 
in  the  work  of  the  preacher  than  may  at  first  appear.  With 
the  sympathetic  spirit  is  naturally  associated  the  optimistic 
spirit.  Love  is  optimistic.  A  loving-  estimate  of  men  in- 
volves the  necessity  of  idealizing  them.  Christian  optimism  is 
precisely  the  love  that  "believeth  all  things"  and  "hopeth  all 
things."  And  this  is  the  basis  of  a  cheerful  spirit.  Cheer- 
fulness is  not  wholly  a  matter  of  temperament.  It  may  be 
cultivated,  and  it  needs  culture.  Men  need  the  uplifting 
power  of  cheerful,  hopeful  preaching.  There  is  nothing 
better  to  say  of  any  man  than  that  he  is  an  uplifting,  helpful 
preacher.  And  this  may  be  said  of  the  best  preachers  of  our 
day.  They  are  men  who  not  only  bring  to  their  tasks  a 
hopeful  and  cheerful  Gospel,  but  who  bring  hopeful  and 
cheerful  souls.  A  preacher  who  indulges  in  low  and  de- 
pressing views  of  human  nature  or  of  human  life,  and  who 
brings  any  touch  of  the  pessimistic  spirit  into  the  pulpit  is 
foredoomed  to  failure.  Of  course  that  light-headed  and 
light-hearted  optimism  that  ignores  the  sin  and  misery  of 
life  has  no  place  in  the  Christian  pulpit.  Preaching  that 
treats  lightly  the  solemn  realities  of  life  will  be  unfruitful. 
But  redemption  is  the  stock  of  the  preacher's  message,  and 
he  who  docs  not  know  it  in  all  its  grandeur  and  who  is  not 
lifted  by  it  into  a  great  height  of  noble  Christian  feeling  is 
not  the  man  the  world  is  looking  for.  With  cheerfulness  and 
hopefulness  is  allied  courage,  strong-heartedness.  He  who 
is  profoundly  sympathetic  with  and  hopeful  for  his  fcllowmen 
will  hold  tenaciously  to  the  tasks  of  his  beneficence.  The 
real  preacher  has  always  been  bold  to  speak  what  was  given 
him  to  speak.  In  his  love  of  men  and  of  the  truth  he  pro- 
claims he  has  always  been  able  to  forget  himself.  The  trim- 
mer,   the   man    who   is   always   on   the   lookout    for   personal 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  41 

consequences,  will  never  make  an  influential,  effective  or  suc- 
cessful preacher. 

3.  Spiritual  gifts.  No  unique  spiritual  finalities  that  dif- 
ferentiate him  from  other  men,  are  needed  in  the  Christian 
preacher,  or  should  be  expected  of  him.  All  Christian 
graces  and  virtues  are  tributary  to  his  equipment.  But 
some  are  doubtless  more  closely  identified  than  others  with 
that  peculiar  spiritual  power  for  which  the  pulpit  stands,  and 
it  is  rightly  assumed  that  the  preacher  will  possess  them  in 
more  than  ordinary  measure.  For  example,  what  Dr.  Bush- 
nell  calls  the  "faith  talent''  is  preeminently  the  preacher's 
gift.  It  is  this  that  holds  him  in  open  vision  of  invisible  and 
spiritual  realities.  Faith  is  spiritual  insight.  It  is  this  that 
lifts  one  above  the  things  that  are  seen  and  temporal.  The 
realization  and  the  interpretation  of  super-sensuous  realities 
are  possible  only  to  a  cultured  Christian  faith.  The  germinal 
spiritual  gift,  in  which  are  contained  all  best  emotional  gifts, 
is  love,  and  it  is  the  culture  of  the  affections  that  conditions 
persuasive  preaching.  Reverence  too  as  of  one  who  deals 
with  the  august  realities  of  God,  of  the  human  soul,  and  of 
the  eternal  life,  is  a  quality  that  conditions  the  most  weighty 
and  impressive  type  of  speech.  But  the  point  to  be  empha- 
sized here  is  that  these  spiritual  qualities  do  not  appear 
directly  in  the  preacher's  pulpit  work.  They  are  all  neces- 
sary to  develop  the  gifts  of  nature  upon  which,  as  thus 
developed,  the  effectiveness  of  preaching  depends.  And  the 
spiritual  factor  in  quickening  native  preaching  gifts  needs 
emphasis.  There  is  no  mere  "clerus  naturalis."  It  is  the 
supernatural  or  spiritual  factor  that  exalts  nature  into  a  fit 
instrument  for  the  service  of  God.  Hence  the  New  Testa- 
ment everywhere  gives  prominence  to  the  gifts  of  grace.  Its 
preaching  is  a  charism.  A  charism  is  a  gift  in  which  grace 
blends  with  nature  and  which,  because  it  adopts  and  domi- 
nates nature,  receives  the  emphasis.     There  is  no  effort  to 


42  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

discriminate  between  nature  and  p^race  or  to  differentiate 
them.  Here,  as  everywhere,  the  rehgious  point  of  view  takes 
precedence  and  the  gifts  of  nature  are  manifest  in  the  higher 
hglit  of  their  consecration.  This  is  a  fact  worthy  of  most 
serious  consideration  as  related  to  the  culture  of  preaching 
power.  It  is  impossible  to  fix  a  limit  to  the  power  of  grace 
in  its  development  of  the  gifts  of  nature.  To  divorce  the 
gifts  of  nature  from  the  gifts  of  grace  would  impoverish  the 
pulpit. 

4.  Rhetorical  gifts.  A  full  discussion  of  rhetorical  cul- 
ture would  include  the  consideration  of  all  those  mental  gifts 
— gifts  of  imagination,  feeling,  affection,  will — and  of  all 
those  moral  and  spiritual  qualities,  whose  culture  lies  behind 
all  most  effective  pulpit  utterance.  These  gifts  are  all  neces- 
sary to  the  interpretation  of  religious  thought  and  to  its 
persuasive  presentation.  They  are  all  significant  for  differ- 
ent types  of  preaching  and  for  different  qualities  of  literary 
style.  The  treatise  is  yet  to  be  written  that  shall  do  full  jus- 
tice to  this  subject.  But  it  is  the  present  task  simply  to 
direct  attention  to  a  few  important  rhetorical  virtues  which 
any  preacher  should  possess  and  cultivate. 

And  first  I  suggest  the  ability  to  transmute  the  material  of 
thought,  whatever  its  quality  or  source,  into  sermon  pabu- 
lum. I  mean,  in  a  word,  capacity  for  moral  and  religious 
ideas,  capacity  to  turn  one's  mental  resources  toward  homi- 
letic  aims.  I  call  it  a  rhetorical  gift,  for  the  form  of  one's 
thought  lies  back  of  the  form  of  its  expression.  The  preach- 
ing gift  is  largely  a  gift  for  coining  thought  in  the  mint  of 
the  moral  and  religious  nature.  All  great  preachers  have 
shown  this  facility  for  turning  thought  into  moral  and  relig- 
ious uses  fitted  to  the  practical  needs  of  men.  It  is  mental 
productiveness  as  stimulated  by  moral  and  religious  impulse, 
and  held  within  the  moral  and  religious  domain.  It  is  intelli- 
gence vitalized  by  ethical  and  spiritual  energy.     It  is  a  form 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  43 

of  the  so-called  homiletic  mind.  It  is  more  than  the  teach- 
ing impulse.  It  is  the  impulse  to  turn  the  truth  to  practical 
advantage.  There  are  minds  that  work  productively  and 
clearly.  But  they  lack  the  preacher's  tact  and  facility  to 
develop  and  apply  the  truth  to  ethical  and  religious  interests. 
The  real  preacher  is  the  man  who  habituates  himself  to  the 
turning  of  all  truth  into  preachable  forms  and  who  acquires 
facility  in  it. 

Ability  to  translate  abstract  thought  into  concrete  forms  is 
another  rhetorical  requisite,  forms  adapted  to  the  habit  and 
capacities  of  the  average  mind,  and  thus  fitted  for  effective 
use.  A  preacher  should  know  theology,  for  theology  is  the 
mental  form  of  religion  and  is,  or  should  be  in  some  large 
measure,  the  preacher's  subject  matter.  But  theologizing  is 
not  preaching.  The  thinker  must  be  a  speaker.  It  is  not 
easy  to  think  abstractly  and  to  speak  concretely.  It  is  a 
difficult  task  to  form  the  habit  of  thinking  scientifically  and 
at  the  same  time  to  form  the  habit  of  turning  one's  thinking- 
into  a  popular  rhetorical  form.  But  precisely  this  is  the 
preacher's  problem  and  he  who  cannot  master  it  will  not  be 
a  preacher. 

Facility  of  speech  is  another  rhetorical  gift,  ability  to  use 
language  freely  as  well  as  clearly,  correctly  and  forcibly. 
There  is  doubtless  a  great  difference  in  preachers  in  this  re- 
gard. Some  have  a  native  gift  for  speech,  and  easily  train 
themselves  into  facility  in  its  use.  Others,  although  not 
without  a  slumbering  capacity  for  it,  seem  to  attain  to  it  as 
by  the  hardest.  What  is  said  of  Canon  Mozley  leads  us  to 
infer  that  he  belonged  to  the  latter  class.  He  was  not  a 
gifted  preacher  in  the  sense  that  he  had  not  the  gifts  that 
condition  popular  impression,  although  he  was  the  writer  of 
profoundly  impressive  sermons.  He  was  slow  in  overcom- 
ing the  barriers  that  seemed  to  hinder  freedom  of  utterance. 
But  he  is  an  inspiration  to  any  preacher  who  knows  himself 


44  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

as  slow  of  speech  and  is  willing  to  do  hard  work.  For  he 
attained  not  only  to  great  productiveness  of  thought  but  to 
notable  facility  of  expression,  although  it  was  not  of  the  pop- 
ular type.  On  the  other  hand  there  are  those  whom  we  call 
"natural  preachers."  Mr.  Spurgeon  was  one.  Many  of 
the  Scotch,  Welsh  and  French  preachers  are  such.  They 
have  clearness  of  thought,  earnestness  of  purpose,  an  impulse 
to  interpret  the  truth  to  the  mind  and  apply  it  to  moral  uses, 
and  facility  of  expression.  This  is  the  outfit  of  the  "natural 
preacher."  One  who  is  thoroughly  deficient  in  these  gifts 
will  not  make  a  successful  preacher.  This  is  especially  true 
of  one  who  has  no  handling  of  his  mother  tongue  and  cannot 
express  his  thoughts  with  case  and  facility. 

n.     Culture  of  Gifts 

Two  practical  suggestions  are  my  only  contribution  to  this 
topic : 

I.  It  were  well  for  every  preacher  to  cultivate  assiduously 
his  own  most  distinctive  and  individual  qualities.  Every  real 
preacher  has  his  own  strong  points,  which  nature  and  grace 
alike  invite  him  to  train.  In  one  class  of  preachers  the  in- 
tellectual activities  are  prominent.  Their  intellectual  move- 
ments are  nimble,  penetrative,  intuitive,  gripping  promptly 
the  heart  of  a  subject,  or  they  are  discursive,  dialectical,  specu- 
lative, grasping  a  subject  in  its  wholeness  or  in  its  implica- 
tions. The  preaching  of  such  men  will  inevitably  bear  their 
distinctive  mark.  The  teaching  quality  will  be  prominent,  and 
their  success  will  lie  in  this  line.  In  another  class  the  ethical 
qualities  predominate.  The  ethical  as  distinguished  from  the 
didactic  aspects  of  the  truth  solicit  such  preachers.  Such 
men  arc  effective  in  impressing  the  moral  judgments  and  im- 
pulses of  their  hearers.  The  man  who  is  strong  in  his  own 
moral  impulses  will  inevitably  be  an  ethical  preacher.  In 
another  class  imagination,  or  sentiment,  or  affection  or  feel- 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  45 

ing    abounds.     Such    men    will    be    rhetorically    impressive 
preachers.     They  will  have  skill  in  stimulating  the  feelings  of 
their  hearers,  or  in  chastening  their  sentiments  or  affections 
or  in  influencing  them  to  action.     Thus  we  have  different 
types  of  preachers  according  not  only  to  the  demands  of  the 
preacher's  work  but  according  to  the  peculiarities  of  his  gifts. 
But  those  that  belong  to  the  same  general  class  or  type  have 
only  a  very  general  resemblance.     They  differ  individually 
not  only  in  degree  but  in  kind.     Preachers  are  didactic,  dia- 
lectical,   speculative,    ethical,    imaginative,    sentimental,    emo- 
tional,   practical,    rhetorical    in    different    sorts    as    well    as 
degrees.     There  are  as  many  sorts  in  these  different  lines  as 
there  are  individual  preachers  of  mark.     Dr.  R.  W.  Dale,  for 
example,  was  an  eminently  intellectual  preacher.       But   so 
was  Canon  Mozley.     So  was  Robertson  and  so  was  Bush- 
nell.     But  how  different  in  intellectual  type.     The  measure 
or  degree  in  which  the  ethical  impulse,  or  sentiment,  or  feel- 
ing, or  imagination  touched  their  intellectual  activities  left 
as  its  result  a  distinct  intellectual  product.       Augustine  and 
Chrysostom   had   extraordinary   power   in   dealing  with   the 
conscience  and  the  emotions,  but  they  were  no  more  alike 
than  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher.     Dr.  F. 
W.  Krummacher  and  Dr.  Edward  Payson  were  sentimental 
preachers   and   of   extraordinary   power   of   persuasion,   but 
while  belonging  to  the  same  general  school  of  preachers,  they 
were  no  more  alike  than  Claus  Harms  and  tloratius  Bonar. 
Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  is  to  be  classed  as  a  rhetorical  peacher.     So 
are  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  and  Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie.     But  how 
greatly   different   in   their   rhetorical   qualities.     It   is   not   a 
question  of  degree  but  of  quality,  and  every  man's  strength 
lies  with  his  own  form  of  the  gift.     Success  will  depend  upon 
developing  and  training  that  gift.     Of  course  there  is  need 
of  a  broad  basis  for  homiletic  as  for  all  other  training.     But 
this  basis  should  support  what  is  special  to  the  man.     One 


46  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

will  not  succeed  equally  well  in  all  types  of  preaching^.  The 
development  of  individuality  secures  reality  and  effectiveness. 
No  one  preaching  gift,  or  group  of  gifts,  is  of  supreme  im- 
portance. Every  man  should  be  content  to  do  what  he  can 
best  do,  and  it  is  idle  to  attempt  to  do  what  someone  else  can 
do  better.  Men  succeed  in  what  God  clearly  intended  they 
should  do. 

Richard  Baxter  was  preeminently  a  pastoral  preacher. 
President  Finney  primarily  an  evangelistic  preacher.  Dr. 
Dale  was  an  educative  preacher  and  lamented  what  he  re- 
garded as  his  deficiency  in  evangelistic  power.  Dr.  Joseph 
Parker  was  a  popular,  impressional  preacher  and  interpreted 
the  truth  chiefly  through  the  imagination.  Canon  Mozlcy 
was  an  apologetic  and  ethical  jircacher  and  never  would  have 
succeeded  with  an  uninstructed  and  immature  congregation. 
Dean  Stanley  was  skillful  in  presenting  his  themes  in  a  simple, 
pictorial  manner  and  c<.n\\d  interest  children  as  well  as  adults. 
Bishop  Brooks'  preaching  attracted  and  impressed  those 
who  were  i)erplexcd  and  opj)rcssed  by  the  mysteries  and 
burdens  of  human  life.  Dr.  R,  S.  Storrs  was  a  rhetorical 
artist  and  preached  most  effectively  to  a  cultivated  con- 
gregation already  persuaded  to  the  truth  of  evangelical 
Christianity. 

Dr.  John  Hall  preached  expositorily  with  notable  success 
to  business  men.  So  did  Dr.  \Vm.  M,  Taylor.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  with  his  rare  power  of  pathos,  inimitable  wit,  cheer- 
ful and  hopeful  temperament,  courageous  spirit  and  broad 
human  sympathies,  was  an  animating  and  comforting 
preacher  and  strengthened  men  for  the  battle  of  life.  Father 
Taylor  of  Boston  seemed  born  to  preach  to  sailors.  These 
are  only  a  few  illustrations  taken  at  random.  Each  signifi- 
cant preacher  has  his  own  gift,  is  successful  in  his  own  line, 
and  it  would  be  idle  to  discredit  it  in  favor  of  another.  Every 
variety  of  gift  is  needed  and  may  be  utilized  in  realizing  the 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  47 

comprehensive  results  of  preaching-.  No  one  man  can  do 
everything  or  succeed  equally  well  on  every  line.  Each  must 
contribute  his  modicum  to  the  total  result. 

2.  Yet  a  certain  symmetry  of  homiletic  development  is 
desirable.  A  thoroughly  one-sided  man  weakens  the  eflfec- 
tivcncss  of  his  own  best  gift.  A  judicious  combination  of 
qualities  is  consistent  with  individuality  and  strength  and 
success  in  any  particular  line.  The  claims  of  individuality 
limit  and  regulate  culture,  but  do  not  supersede  the  demand 
for  range.  Such  range  of  culture  is  needed  especially  in  the 
early  part  of  one's  professional  career,  when  homiletic  habits 
are  in  process  of  formation.  It  is  thus  only  that  a  preacher 
is  likely  to  find  his  strong  point.  It  is  a  matter  of  experi- 
ment. Every  preacher  should  train  himself  to  preach  more 
than  one  kind  of  sermons.  Such  training  may  be  measurably 
successful  without  compromising  individuality.  Preachers 
are  likely  to  overwork  their  specialty.  Dr.  Guthrie  culti- 
vated himself  too  exclusively  in  a  pictorial  and  dramatic  style 
of  preaching.  Doubtless  it  was  his  strong  point,  although  it 
is  said  that  he  did  not  discover  it  at  the  very  outset  of  his 
career.  The  discovery  was  in  a  sort  incidental,  and  after  the 
discovery  was  made,  training  in  it  was  a  matter  of  deliberate 
choice  and  of  persistent  effort.  And  thus  he  over-worked  it. 
He  was  too  much  of  a  Scotchman  not  to  have  succeeded  in 
the  training  of  his  rational  faculties.  If  he  had  done  that, 
his  pictorial  and  dramatic  qualities  might  have  served  him  to 
even  better  use  than  they  did.  He  might  well  have  gone  to 
school  to  such  preachers  as  Robertson.  Rhetoricians  like 
Dr.  Joseph  Parker  need  to  moderate  the  exuberance  of  their 
imagination  and  emotion.  They  should  go  to  school  to  men 
like  Dr.  Dale  in  whom  the  rational  faculties  are  predominant. 
I  grant  the  extreme  difficulty  of  the  task.  It  is  asking  a 
good  deal  of  a  man  to  take  himself  in  hand  and  moderate  and 
modify   himself.     But   when  habits   arc   forming  it   mav   be 


48  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

done,  and  it  should  be  done  before  it  is  too  late.     By  patient, 
intelligent  effort  men  find  that  they  succeed  better  than  they 
could  have  imagined  in  lines  that  are  seemingly  foreign  to 
them.     It  should  be  remembered  that  many  needs  are  to  be 
met  by  the  preacher.     There  are  but  few  large  and  wealthy 
churches  that  can  secure  variety  in  preaching  by  increasing 
the  number  of  preachers.     In  most  of  our  churches  one  man 
must  meet  the  various  needs  of  the  same  congregation.     If 
he  stays  any  considerable  length  of  time,  he  must  measurably 
well  satisfy  those  needs,  well  enough  at  any  rate  to  hold  the 
congregation  as  a  whole.     Preachers  in  our  day  find  it  more 
difficult  than  ever  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  large  number  of 
people  of  different   classes.       This   is  one   reason  why  the 
pastorate  is  so  short.     It  explains  also  why  congregations 
rally  about  the  preacher  as  a  centre  and  sift  themselves  and 
become  homogeneous  by  a  process  of  natural  selection.     The 
so-called  institutional  churches  and  all  large  churches  of  the 
centralized  communions,  like  the  Roman  Catholic  and  Episco- 
pal, are  able  to  supply  their  congregations  with  preachers  of 
diflercnt  types.     There  are  great  advantages  in  this.     The 
Methodist  church  was  obliged  to  adopt  the  itinerant  system, 
in  order  to  meet  the  needs  of  its  constituency,  and  although 
it  will  inevitably  be  modified,  it  seems  probable  that  it  will  be 
obliged  to  hold  on  to  it  and  that  it  will  find  its  advantage  in 
it.     The  churches  that  have  a  permanent  pastorate  will  find 
themselves  obliged  increasingly  to  secure,  if  possible,  preach- 
ers who  have  some  range  of  homiletic  culture  and  some  va- 
riety in  their  homiletic  products.     Modern  culture  will  force 
the   ministry   into   l)roadcr   homiletic   training  or   force   the 
churches  into  the  employment  of  more  than  one  preacher  for 
the  same   congregation.        Preachers,   in   the   consciousness 
that  their  preaching  fails  to  meet  all  the  needs  of  their  con- 
gregations,  sometimes   make   frequent   exchanges   of   pulpit 
with  their  brother  ministers.       Something  may  be  done  in 


THE  GIFTS  OF  THE  PREACHER  49 

this  way.  But  the  upshot  is  Hkely  to  be  a  permanent  ex- 
change. By  trying  one's  hand  in  different  Hues  one  may  find 
resources  of  which  he  was  unconscious.  Men  do  not  know 
what  they  can  do  till  they  have  tested  the  matter.  Circum- 
stances often  call  out  men's  latent  powers.  Note  men's  ex- 
periences in  extemporaneous  preaching.  Not  infrequently 
circumstances  push  preachers  on  to  a  platform,  where  they 
must  try  their  powers  of  extemporaneous  speech,  and  then 
they  find  that  what  they  regarded  as  impossible  becomes 
easy.  Experimenting  on  different  lines  is  a  good  thing.  It 
is  this  that  at  last  discloses  the  secret  of  one's  strength,  and 
when  one  has  found  it,  it  will  receive  the  support  of  training 
in  other  lines.  This  is  true  especially  in  the  earlier  years  of 
one's  ministry.  No  preacher  should  ever  permit  himself  to 
tolerate  any  serious  defect  in  his  preaching,  if  it  be  possible 
to  correct  it.  No  vocation  demands  so  many-sided  a  culture 
as  that  of  a  Christian  preacher. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   STUDY   OF   HO^HLETICS 

If  preaching  is  the  most  important  of  all  ministerial  func- 
tions, homiletics  must  be  the  most  important  branch  of  prac- 
tical theolog-y,  and  the  intelligent  study  of  homiletics  the 
most  important  of  all  practical  ministerial  interests.  The 
claim  to  supremacy  of  this  function  has  indeed  been  chal- 
lenged in  our  day,  but  not  with  success.  A  new  recognition 
of  the  importance  of  other  lines  of  ministerial  work  is  doubt- 
less the  outcome  of  the  discussion.  But  attempt  to  exalt  the 
value  of  one  line  of  work  by  minimizing  the  significance  of 
another  is  a  poor  style  of  advocacy.  Much  that  is  of  value 
has  been  said  in  depreciation  of  certain  conceptions  of  homi- 
letic  science  and  of  certain  methods  of  homiletic  study.  But 
nothing  that  has  been  said  in  disparagement  of  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  preacher's  work  is  worthy  of  a  moment's  consid- 
eration. I  shall  assume  that  the  preacher's  place  is  vindi- 
cated and  shall  spend  no  time  in  discussing  it.  It  is  the 
importance  of  the  science  of  homiletics  that  partially  justifies 
the  American  and  British  custom  of  detaching  it  from  its 
acknowledged  background  and  base  in  practical  theology  and 
of  giving  it  separate  consideration.  The  two  topics  I  pro- 
pose for  discussion  arc  the  value  and  the  method  of  homiletic 
study. 

I.     The  V.m.ue  of  Homiletic  Study 

I.  It  furnishes  a  basis  of  knowledge  for  the  work  of  the 
preacher.  Not  all  the  knowledge  that  is  possible  of  course, 
but  a  basis  of  knowledge,  knowledge  at  least  of  the  theory. 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  51 

Preaching  is  an  art.  Like  all  art,  it  rests  upon  a  science. 
Homiletics  does  for  preaching  what  any  science  does  for  the 
work  it  represents.  A  man  may  know  a  thing  without  know- 
ing how  he  knows  it,  as  he  may  do  a  thing  without  knowing 
how  he  does  it.  That  is,  he  may  have  a  genius  for  it. 
Genius  is  unconscious,  or  half-conscious,  of  its  method.  One 
may  have  a  genius  for  preaching.  But  even  such  a  man  may 
well  covet  to  know  all  that  it  is  possible  for  him  to  know 
about  his  work.  Such  men  are  generally  in  fact  most  eager 
students  of  their  art.  Good  preaching  is  not  so  easy  for  any 
man  that  he  can  afford  to  treat  the  conditions  of  success  with 
indifference.  But  it  is  of  special  importance  to  those  who 
are  not  "born  preachers,"  if  there  be  any  such  class  of  human 
beings.  In  order  to  know,  one  must  have  a  way  of  getting 
at  his  knowledge.  This  is  science.  The  first  thing  for  a 
preacher  to  know  is  what  to  say.  The  next  thing  is  to  ar- 
range what  he  says.  The  last  thing  is  to  express  what  he 
has  thought  and  planned.  Substance,  arrangement,  expres- 
sion. Homiletics  gives  the  preacher  a  well-based  knowledge 
of  these  problems.  The  study  has  value  with  respect  to  these 
three  interests.     Let  us  consider  them. 

The  study  is  a  guide  in  the  choice  of  subject  matter. 
Homiletics,  like  general  rhetoric,  is  not  creative  but  regula- 
tive. It  is  a  formal,  not  a  material  science.  As  a  science  it 
has  no  subject  matter  of  its  own.  It  assumes  it  as  given 
from  other  sources.  It  avails  itself  of  these  sources  and 
teaches  how  to  use  the  material  thus  secured.  Its  sources 
are  various.  Scripture,  theology,  ethics,  science,  history,  lit- 
erature, experience,  in  a  word,  whatever  may  contribute  the 
material  of  thought  that  may  be  converted  into  homiletic 
pabulum.  The  problem  is  to  select  such  material  as  is  perti- 
nent to  the  object  sought  and  then  to  use  it  appropriately. 
The  material  is  to  be  adapted  not  only  to  the  work  of  preach- 
ing in  general,  but  on  particular  occasions,  on  particular  sub- 


52  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

jects,  to  particular  classes  of  people,  to  particular  types  of 
sermon,  and  to  the  particular  sermon  in  hand,  whatever  its 
type,  its  audience,  its  subject,  or  its  occasion.  And  as  it  does 
not  produce  but  only  regulates  the  choice  and  use  of  mate- 
rial, so  it  does  not  produce  but  only  regulates  the  mental 
energy  that  handles  the  material.  But,  as  we  shall  see  later 
on,  the  regulation  of  mental  energy  may  serve  to  intensify 
it.  It  may  stimulate  the  inventive  powers.  But  the  point  in 
hand  just  here  is  that  the  selection  and  use  of  material  must 
be  regulated  by  considerations  that  arc  in  harmony  with  the 
principles  of  homiletic  science. 

It  is  a  guide  in  organizing  the  material  of  thought.  As  in 
the  choice  of  material  homiletics  gets  back  into  Biblical  and 
other  sources,  so  in  organizing  it,  it  gets  back  into  the 
science  of  rhetoric,  and  rhetoric  gets  back  into  the  science  of 
logic,  for  logic  is  the  science  that  deals  with  the  relations  of 
thought.  Rhetoric  appropriates  the  results  of  investigation 
in  the  science  of  thought.  It  prescribes  those  methods  of 
ordering  thought  that  conform  to  the  ascertained  laws  of 
thought.  But  here  rhetoric  and  logic  rest  not  merely  on 
theory  but  on  experience.  Homiletics  discusses  those  meth- 
ods of  ordering  thought  in  the  domain  of  Christian  speech 
that  have  been  found  most  effective  in  producing  the  legiti- 
mate results  of  such  speech.  It  develops  a  method  of  its 
own  that  is  adaj)ted  to  the  specific  nature  of  the  work  of 
preaching,  and  docs  not  slavishly  follow  the  canons  of  gen- 
eral rhetoric. 

It  guides  in  the  expression  of  Christian  thought.  It 
teaches  how  to  express  thought  in  a  style  appropriate  not 
only  to  the  laws  of  the  human  soul  in  general  when  it  ex- 
presses itself  in  speech,  init  to  the  nature  and  object  of  Chris- 
tian preaching.  It  avails  itself  of  whatever  will  aid  in  the 
cultivation  of  a  style  of  speech  that  is  specifically  appropriate 
to  the  pulpit.     In  all  this  it,  of  course,  presupposes  the  gifts 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  53 

and  the  training  essential  to  the  use  of  language.  The  prob- 
lem is  to  turn  these  gifts  and  products  of  education  in  a  right 
homiletic  direction,  so  as  to  produce  a  type  of  speech  that 
becomes  an  effective  instrument  in  presenting  the  truth  of  the 
Gospel. 

2.  It  becomes  tributary  to  the  awakening  of  the  preach- 
ing impulse.  It  is  a  universal  fact  that  all  knowledge, 
whether  general  or  specific,  awakens  the  powers  of  the  soul. 
It  is  true  in  this  particular  branch  of  knowledge.  Homiletic 
study  prepares  the  way  negatively  and  indirectly  for  such 
quickening  by  disclosing  defects.  Homiletics  holds  before 
the  mind  an  ideal  in  the  light  of  which  one  beholds  his  imper- 
fections. It  is  no  inconsiderable  part  of  our  education  to 
disclose  such  imperfections  and  to  awaken  self-dissatisfac- 
tion. The  first  thing  and  the  best  thing  to  do  for  any  man 
is  to  place  before  him  a  standard  in  the  light  of  which  he  may 
see  his  own  limitations.  We  are  stirred  to  self-improvement 
by  the  goad  of  discontent. 

But  the  positive  result  is  the  awakening  of  aspiration. 
Any  slumbering  impulse  or  energy  is  evoked  as  well  as 
guided  by  vigorous  intellectual  commerce  with  those  exter- 
nal concrete  objects  that  are  set  over  against  the  impulse  or 
energy,  and  with  the  principles  that  are  bedded  in  these  ob- 
jects. Mechanical  inventiveness,  or  the  awakening  of  the 
mechanical  impulse,  for  example,  is  produced  by  being 
brought  into  immediate  and  vigorous  contact,  not  only  with 
the  best  mechanical  products,  but  with  the  principles  that  are 
hidden  under  them.  It  is  the  study  of  the  principles  as  well 
as  of  the  products  of  mechanics,  that  produces  skilled  work- 
men. Artistic  impulse  and  invention  are  quickened  by  con- 
tact not  only  with  the  best  concrete  products  of  art  but  by 
familiarity  with  the  principles  of  art.  Thus  in  the  work  of 
preaching.  Knowledge  not  only  of  the  best  sermon  products 
but  of  the  principles  that  should  guide  one  in  the  choice  of  the 


54  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

subject  matter  of  preaching  tends  to  quicken  and  to  develop 
the  power  to  produce  such  material  as  is  appropriate  to  one's 
work.  It  is  vigorous  agitation  of  principles  as  well  as  famil- 
iarity with  products  that  quickens  homiletic  inventiveness. 

So  too  as  regards  the  question  of  method.  Mental  free- 
dom and  force  are  conditioned  by  the  orderly  development 
of  thought.  Show  the  mind  the  right  track  and  it  will  move 
in  it  freely  and,  therefore,  productively  and  forcefully.  Study 
of  the  laws  of  mental  action  tends  to  quicken  mental  action 
itself.  Thus  also  with  regard  to  the  expression  of  thought. 
Whatever  makes  manifest  the  conditions  of  free,  forceful, 
clear,  graceful  expression  tends  to  the  quickening  of  all  those 
activities  of  thought,  feeling,  imagination  upon  which  suc- 
cessful speech  depends. 

3.  As  securing  a  basis  of  knowledge  and  as  quickening 
the  preaching  impulse,  it  follows  that  the  study  of  homiletics 
will  condition  the  most  effective  use  of  all  available  resources. 
It  teaches  and  empowers  one  to  marshal  and  handle  rightly 
and  effectively  all  the  material  of  one's  culture  and  training, 
mental,  moral,  spiritual,  even  physical.  It  aids  one  in  the 
handling  of  one's  mental  resources.  One  may  be  a  good 
thinker,  a  good  theologian,  a  good  scholar,  and  may  treasure 
abundant  mental  resources  from  all  quarters  and  yet  he  may 
not  be  able  to  make  a  proper  use  of  these  resources  in  the 
pulpit.  Something  more  than  knowledge  is  necessary  to 
make  a  preacher.  The  preacher  must  know  how  to  handle 
his  learning.  He  must  not  only  think  and  acquire  and  know, 
he  must  convert  his  treasures  into  effective  pulpit  force.  The 
art  of  preaching  consists  precisely  in  the  effective  handling  of 
one's  self,  and  of  one's  knowledge  and  training  and  culture  in 
the  pulpit.  It  is  only  the  thorough  study  of  the  art  that  will 
enable  one  to  do  this. 

It  aids  one  in  the  study  of  models.  Models  give  us  homi- 
letics in  the  concrete.     Every  good  preacher  illustrates  posi- 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  55 

tively  important  homiletic  principles.  Every  defective 
preacher  illustrates  negatively.  But  one  must  have  some 
understanding  of  the  preacher's  task,  some  understanding  of 
the  principles  embodied  in  his  work,  in  order  to  get  the  value 
of  the  illustration.  To  know  what  to  appropriate  from  one's 
model,  one  must  have  some  test  of  its  worth,  and  to  know 
what  to  reject  and  avoid  one  must  test  the  thing  to  be  avoided 
by  some  valid  principle.  All  study  of  models  presupposes 
the  application  of  some  sort  of  test  that  brings  into  judgment 
the  one-sidedness,  the  limitation,  or  defect  of  one's  work. 
Otherwise  instead  of  study  we  should  have  only  a  slavish  imi- 
tation. 

It  aids  one  in  the  best  use  of  personal  experience  in  the 
work  of  preaching.  All  good  preaching  of  course  comes  out 
of  the  school  of  experience.  But  the  worth  of  the  experience 
depends  on  the  kind  of  experience.  What  if  one  gets  into  the 
wrong  school  of  experience?  Experience  simply  as  such  has 
no  value.  There  is  bad  as  well  as  good  experience.  There 
is  a  false  as  well  as  true  individuality  in  preaching.  A 
preacher  is  rightly  jealous  of  the  rights  of  his  personality  in 
the  pulpit.  Loss  of  true  individuality  is  loss  of  power.  Bet- 
ter, indeed,  keep  one's  individuality,  even  though  it  be  very 
defective,  than  afifect  a  merely  formal  correctness.  Such  cor- 
rectness is  forceless.  It  is  the  man,  the  man  himself,  that 
preaches.  If  one  loses  what  is  vital  out  of  his  manhood,  his 
work  will  be  crippled.  But  in  speaking  of  individuality  it  is 
pertinent  to  ask  which  one,  the  true  or  the  false?  It  is  the 
preacher's  task  to  train  up  and  train  in  the  true,  and  to  train 
down  and  train  out  the  false  individuality.  Preaching  will 
go  wrong  unless  regulated  by  principles  that  are  valid.  Be- 
hind the  art  is  the  science.  Experience  in  the  practice  of 
medicine  is  valuable,  but  not  without  medical  science  behind 
it.  Experience  in  preaching  may  be  mischievous  unless 
properly  regulated.     One  may  get  only  the  more  deeply  set 


56  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

in  bad  ways.  It  is  true  that  a  man  of  genius  may  cut  out  his 
own  path  and  by  a  sort  of  instinctive  conformity  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  his  art  succeed  unconsciously.  But  the  average 
preacher,  who  hasn't  the  instincts  of  genius  and  who  knows 
nothing  about  the  principles  of  his  work,  is  as  really  a  charla- 
tan as  a  physician  who  knows  nothing  about  the  science  of 
medicine  or  a  lawyer  who  knows  nothing  about  the  princi- 
ples of  law.  Men  of  genius  have  a  certain  sort  of  success  in 
many  lines  without  a  thorough  basis  of  scientific  knowledge. 
But  in  these  days  we  are  not  encouraging  experiment  in  this 
sort  of  success.  After  all  every  man  who  truly  succeeds  best 
must  in  fact  be  a  student  of  his  business. 

It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  study  of  homiletics 
conditions  the  use  of  one's  spiritual  resources.  It  is  indeed, 
the  presence  of  the  divine  spirit  in  the  preacher  that  makes 
his  preaching  spiritually  effective.  Human  resources  iso- 
lated from  the  divine  are  not  adequate  to  the  work.  But  it  is 
equally  true  that  one's  training  as  a  preacher  may  condition 
the  effectiveness  even  of  the  spirit  of  God  within  one.  The 
divine  spirit  makes  best  use  of  the  best  instruments,  and  good- 
ness is  not  the  only  effective  instrument  in  the  pulpit.  We 
know  that  our  moral  attitude  with  respect  to  the  Holy  Spirit 
conditions  the  effectiveness  of  his  work  in  regeneration.  We 
may  be  equally  sure  that  the  preacher's  mental  attitude  and 
activities  with  respect  to  his  work  will  condition  the  use  the 
Holy  Spirit  may  make  of  his  resources.  We  know  that  dis- 
tinctively spiritual  experiences  are  necessary  to  effective 
preaching.  But  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  homiletic 
value  of  these  experiences  is  comlitioned  by  the  use  we  are 
able  to  make  of  them  in  our  liDmiletic  training.  Fra  An- 
gelico  thought  his  art  as  painter  a  purely  supernatural  gift. 
It  was  the  spirit  of  God  that  gave  him  those  angelic  faces  as 
he  traced  them  upon  the  walls  of  his  monastery  at  Florence, 
and  he  never  changed  them.      But  we  know  that  his  religious 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  57 

inspiration  was  conditioned  as  to  its  effectiveness  b)^  the  per- 
fection of  the  artistic  instrument  through  which  it  wrouglit, 
and  that  it  was  the  skill  as  well  as  genius  of  the  painter  that 
made  available  the  higher  insjiirations  of  the  saint.  And  do 
we  not  also  know  that  it  is  the  skill  of  the  trained  preacher 
in  part  that  makes  available  for  the  highest  ends  the  influence 
of  the  divine  spirit  that  works  within  him?  Knowledge  of 
the  work  of  preaching,  impulse  to  exercise  it,  and  skill  in  using 
it — this  is  what  the  study  of  our  science  does  for  us. 

If  this  be  so,  it  follows  that  the  study  may  be  of  value  in 
rescuing  the  work  of  the  pulpit  from  degeneracy.  There  are 
always  influences  that  are  conducive  to  the  deterioration  of 
the  preacher's  work.  Schleiermacher  found  them  in  his  day 
and  gave  himself  to  the  task  of  counter-working  them.  He 
suggests  not  only  the  need  of  strong  and  eflfective  preachers 
and  of  a  more  earnest  religious  life  to  counter-work  degener- 
ate tendencies,  but  of  fresh  interest  on  the  part  of  all  preach- 
ers in  the  study  of  their  work  in  order  to  rescue  it  from  the 
loss  of  a  worthy  ideal  and  to  restore  its  effectiveness.  These 
deteriorative  influences  are  many,  and  every  age  is  exposed 
to  them.  In  periods  that  are  past  it  has  been  a  one-sided 
intellectualism.  The  degeneracy  of  the  pulpit  during  the 
period  of  German  rationalism  is  well  known.  Not  only  the 
substance  of  preaching,  but  its  spirit,  and  form  deteriorated, 
as  will  al\va\'s  be  the  case  when  the  substance  deteriorates. 
If  the  church  loses  a  strong  religious  life  and  becomes  ration- 
alistic and  speculative,  its  pulpit  will  lose  evangelical  fervor 
and  power.  Schleiermacher  found  the  German  pulpit  in  this 
degenerate  condition  and  he  sought  to  restore  not  only  a 
more  spiritual  type  of  theology,  but  a  more  religious  life  in 
the  churches,  and  it  is  notable  that  he  began  his  work  in  the 
pulpit.  He  not  only  furthered  by  his  own  preaching  the 
development  of  a  more  devout  and  spiritually  earnest  tone  in 
the   German  pulpit  but  he  awakened  fresh  interest  in   the 


58  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

whole  subject  of  preaching  ami  in  practical  theology  in  gen- 
eral. Much  of  the  one-sided  intellectualism  that  has  in  time 
past  characterized  :some  types  of  American  preaching  has 
vanished.  The  preaching  of  all  schools  is  more  earnest  and 
religious  in  its  tone.  But  in  so  far  as  the  American  pulpit  is 
endangered  of  detachment  from  a  strong  and  genuine  super- 
naturalism,  the  threat  of  degeneracy  is  over  it,  and  it  will 
require  more  than  a  "new  theology"  ;  it  will  demand  fresh 
study  of  the  preacher's  message,  of  his  spirit,  of  his  aims  and 
methods  to  rescue  it.  A  one-sided  devotion  to  doctrinal  the- 
ology has  been  another  deteriorative  influence.  When 
theology  becomes  an  abstract  science  and  ceases  to  be  a  vital 
interest  in  human  life,  when  men  care  more  about  thought 
than  about  life,  about  truth  than  about  men.  about  a  scientific 
than  about  a  working  theology,  the  pulpit  becomes  degen- 
erate. In  order  to  counter-work  this  there  has  been  needed 
not  only  a  modification  in  theology  but  new  interest  in  the 
practical  application  of  truth  to  human  life,  new  interest  in 
the  rescue  of  the  pulpit  from  false  ideals.  And  it  is  a  fact 
that  whenever  in  the  history  of  the  church  there  has  been 
any  increase  or  decrease  of  interest  in  the  practical  work  of 
preaching,  any  increase  or  decrease  of  desire  to  make  it  ef- 
fective, there  has  been  a  corresponding  increase  or  decrease  of 
interest  in  the  study  of  the  science  and  art  of  preaching  and 
such  increase  or  decrease  has  been  accompanied  by  a  corre- 
sponding result  in  the  work.  Note  the  increase  of  interest  in 
preaching  and  the  bettering  of  its  quality  during  the  period 
of  the  Reformation  and  during  different  periods  subsequent 
to  the  post-Reformation.  But  dogmatic  confessionalism  no 
longer  endangers;  the  vitality  of  preaching.  It  is  rather  an 
equally  one-sided  reaction  against  doctrinal  theology  and  a 
barren  agnosticism  that  threatens  to  eviscerate  it  of  positive 
content. 

Various  forms  of  secularism  arc  influences  that  endanger 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  59 

the  effectiveness  of  the  pulpit  in  our  day.  A  secular  temper 
and  tone  and  habit  of  mind  will  devitalize  and  demoralize  any 
pulpit.  It  will  affect  not  only  the  aim  and  tone  but  the  very 
substance  and  form  of  preaching.  Genuine  religious  awak- 
enings not  only  evoke  new  preaching  power,  but  stir  new 
interest  in  the  whole  subject  of  preaching.  We  have  seen 
this  in  the  religious  awakenings  of  the  eighteenth  and  nine- 
teenth centuries.  In  resisting  the  tide  of  modern  secularism 
that  sets  against  the  pulpit,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  before  the 
mind  the  proper  aim  and  spirit  of  preaching,  not  less  than  its 
proper  substance  and  form. 

The  inherent  difficulties  of  the  preacher's  task  are  another 
source  of  influence  that  endangers  diminution  of  power  and 
they  summon  the  preacher  to  grapple  the  more  valiantly 
with  his  problem.  Professor  Shedd  in  the  second  chapter  of 
his  Homiletics  has  touched  upon  this  in  an  effective  manner. 
He  presents  three  reasons  for  the  careful  study  of  the  science 
and  art  of  preaching,  vis. ;  the  dignity  and  importance  of  the 
subject,  its  difficulties  and  the  demand  of  the  public  upon  the 
pulpit  teacher.  Only  a  word  with  respect  to  the  difficulties 
is  admissible  here.  These  difficulties  arise  partly  from  the 
great  varieties  of  need  to  be  met,  partly  from  the  limitations 
of  range  in  the  methods  of  presenting  the  truth,  and  partly 
from  the  obscurity  on  the  one  hand  and  the  familiarity  on  the 
other  hand  of  the  themes  with  which  the  pulpit  deals.  For 
any  man,  however  gifted  to  make  luminous  and  attractive 
the  themes  of  religion,  which  touch  upon  the  realm  of  mys- 
tery at  every  point,  but  have  become  familiar  by  ages  of  dis- 
cussion, to  keep  within  the  proper  limits  of  pulpit  advocacy, 
and  to  adjust  them  to  the  needs  of  all  classes  of  people,  is  no 
easy  task.  Of  course  a  study  of  homiletics  alone  will  not 
enable  one  to  do  this.  But  it  gives  one  an  insight  into  his 
problem.  It  furnishes  suggestions  as  to  what  is  needed.  It 
starts  one  upon  the  work  of  training  oneself  for  his  task  and 


6o  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

puts  him  in  possession  of  some  of  the  instruments  necessary 
for  it. 

n.     Methods  of  Homiletic  Study 

Four  methods  are  available :  investigation  of  fundamental 
principles,  observation  of  living  examples,  analysis  of  pub- 
lished products  and  personal  experience  and  criticism. 

I.  Study  of  homiletic  principles.  I  begin  here,  because 
other  methods  of  study  avail  only  as  fundamental  principles 
are  mastered.  Preaching  of  course  does  not  begin  with 
science.  Science  is  the  product  of  experience.  But  experi- 
ment is  more  effective  in  the  light  of  science.  Principles  are 
the  summation  of  the  results  of  inductive  processes  of  inves- 
tigation. They  are  the  registry  of  generalized  facts.  They 
are  available  for  use.  It  is  not  necessary  to  go  through  all 
the  processes  of  inductive  investigation  in  order  to  get  the 
results.  We  may  avail  ourselves  of  such  as  are  ready  at 
hand.  Homiletics  as  a  science  is  a  way  of  getting  at  the 
essential  things,  the  fundamental,  the  bottom  things,  the 
things  that  make  preaching  what  it  ought  to  be.  /.  e.,  its  prin- 
ciples. It  detaches  the  principles  that  are  bedded  in  the 
work  and  holds  them  up  to  view,  makes  them  objects  of 
observation  and  reflection,  and  thus  secures  a  knowledge,  or 
a  measure  of  knowledge,  of  tlie  nature  of  the  work.  In  all 
this  study  familiarity  with  other  methods  is  of  course  presup- 
posed, otherwise  the  scientific  would  discredit  the  artistic 
aspect  of  the  problem  and  result  in  a  conventional  and  stereo- 
typed product.  The  importance  of  native  gifts  and  the  sig- 
nificance of  personal  peculiarities  are  especially  recognized. 
The  personal  factor  is  always  presupposed  and  homiletics  can 
not  discredit  or  displace  it.  As  Bishop  Brooks  says:  ''Per- 
sonality is  the  soil  out  of  which  preaching  grows."  This  is 
not  the  whole  truth,  but  it  is  an  important  truth.  The 
quality  of  preaching  as  a  personal  product  will  depend  upon 
the  quality    of    the    soil    of    personal    manhood.     It    is    not 


J 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  6i 

preaching-  if  it  be  not  the  product  of  a  Uving.  human  soul. 
There  is  no  absolute  and  universal  model  or  ideal  of  preach- 
ing. Every  man  is  summoned  to  find  and  develop  his  own 
strong  point  as  a  preacher,  and  he  must  learn  largely  by  ex- 
periment. It  is  a  fresh  problem  to  every  new  comer.  But 
after  all  the  science  of  homiletics  does  not  deal  merely  with 
the  individual  preacher.  It  does  not  at  the  outset  attempt 
to  answer  the  question:  "How  should  I  preach?"  It  deals 
with  a  broader  question:  "How  should  any  man  preach?"  By 
answering  the  latter  question,  however,  it  has  done  much  to- 
wards answering  the  former  question.  That  is  to  say,  there 
are  certain  general  principles  that  are  valid  for  all  preaching, 
and  to  which  any  man  who  would  be  a  good  workman  must 
conform.  No  man  can  be  a  complete  law  unto  himself  in 
homiletics  any  more  than  he  can  in  ethics.  The  personal 
factor  is  doubtless  more  flexible  in  art  than  it  is  in  morals. 
But  even  ethics  has  its  individual  factor.  Ethical  science 
can  not,  by  a  general  law,  determine  beforehand  how  each 
human  being,  in  every  conceivable  particular  case,  should 
behave.  Even  casuistry  is  inadequate  to  meet  all  possible 
cases.  But  ethical  science  has,  by  its  formulation  of  general 
principles,  taken  the  individual  to  a  very  large  extent  under 
its  regulation.  And  it  is  so  with  homiletic  science.  It  ab- 
stracts from  concrete  reality  an  ideal  of  preaching  and  holds 
it  up  before  us.  Every  preacher  must  avail  himself  of  it  in  a 
general  way.  But  each  man  does  it  under  certain  limita- 
tions, each  in  his  own  way  and  only  to  a  limited  extent.  One 
can  only  approximate  a  general  ideal.  But  this  general  ideal 
furnishes  a  background  and  basis  for  the  personal  ideal, 
which  the  preacher  abstracts  from  the  ground-work  of  his 
own  personality.  An  available  ideal  for  preaching  therefore, 
will  be  a  blending  of  the  general  and  the  personal  ideals. 
That  is,  it  will  recognize  those  principles  upon  which  good 
preaching  in  general  rests,  and  at  the  same  time  it  will  recog- 


62  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

nize  the  demands  of  one's  own  personality.  But  the  stress- 
point  just  here  is  that  every  preacher  must  get  back  beyond 
his  own  personaHty  in  order  to  answer  the  question  how  he 
should  preach.  And  this  takes  him  a  good  way  back.  It 
takes  him  into  relation  with  the  Scriptures,  and  this 
conditions  his  subject  matter.  It  takes  him  into  relation 
with  the  Church,  whose  minister  he  is,  and  this  con- 
ditions his  message  and  his  aim  and  tone.  It  takes 
him  into  relation  with  the  science  of  rhetoric,  and  this 
conditions  the  method  of  ordering  and  e.xpressing  thought. 
Here  one  gets  a  basis  for  preaching  that  is  scientific.  Per- 
sonality may  modify  one's  work.  It  will  not,  can  not,  be  the 
duplication  of  another  man's  work.  But  it  does  not  create 
the  primary  ideal.  Now  it  is  true  that  men  of  homiletic 
genius  are  of  great  value  as  illustrating  homiletic  principles 
in  the  concrete.  These  men  perceive  intuitively,  sense  in- 
stinctively, and  apply  unconsciously  or  half-consciously,  the 
principles  of  their  art.  The  principles  are  there,  if  the 
preaching  is  what  it  should  be.  And  in  a  sort  they  regulate 
the  preaching.  But  they  do  it  unconsciously.  Such  men  do 
not  always  know  their  art.  They  are  half-consciously  im- 
pelled from  within.  It  is  from  such  men  that  homiletics  ab- 
stracts its  principles  to  best  advantage.  At  any  rate  it  may 
well  go  to  recognized  masters  of  the  art  and  not  to  inferior, 
second  rate  men.  But  seeing  how  homiletic  principles  are 
illustrated  by  masters  of  the  art,  it  is  necessary  to  preserve 
them  in  scientific  form  for  the  benefit  especially  of  those  who 
are  obliged  to  work  consciously  and  laboriously  in  order  to 
work  successfully  or  perhaps  in  order  to  work  at  all.  A 
good  deal  has  been  said  by  writers  on  art  about  the  value  of 
unconscious  and  unreflective  W(^rk.  as  if  the  nearer  men  get 
to  savage  life  the  better  work  they  are  likely  to  do.  Ruskin 
glories  in  this  sort  of  savagery  and  illustrates  from  the  art  of 
coloring   among  semi-civilized   as   contrasted   with    civilized 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  63 

peoples.  "It  is  their  glorious  ignorance  of  all  rules  that 
does  it,"  he  says.  But  whatever  may  be  said  in  favor  of 
spontaneity  in  the  art  of  coloring,  which  is  largely  an  imita- 
tive art,  and  is  doubtless  largely  dependent  on  the  uncon- 
scious training  of  the  eye  and  of  the  artistic  tastes,  it  is 
certainly  not  true  of  the  art  of  i^ublic  speech.  Of  course  the 
art  is  not  acquired  by  the  perfunctory  application  of  external 
rules,  although  all  ignorance  of  rules  could  hardly  be  called 
"glorious."  But  nothing  can  supersede  the  mastery  of 
homiletic  principles.  They  give  one  an  insight  into  his 
problem.  They  give  one  the  necessary  teaching  as  to  what 
he  has  to  do  and  how  to  do  it, 

2.  The  study  of  living  preachers  who  are  models  of  their 
art.  Good  models  are  of  immense  value  especially  to  a 
young  preacher.  It  is  a  great  blessing  for  young  men  to 
have  had  the  privilege  in  early  years  of  listening  to  able  and 
accomplished  preachers.  The  writer  has  had  abundant  op- 
portunity to  note  its  results  in  students  of  preaching.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  most  men  who  attain  to  eminence  in  the 
pulpit  recognize  and  acknowledge  their  dependence  for 
inspiration  upon  preachers  whom  they  regarded  as  models 
in  early  years.  It  is  well  to  listen  only  to  the  best  preachers 
that  are  within  reach,  and  it  is  well  to  listen  to  many  preach- 
ers and  of  different  types.  Thorough  study  of  living  models 
makes  it  impossible  for  any  man  to  become  an  unconscious 
or  a  conscious  imitator.  Nor  will  such  study  merely  lead 
one  to  yield  oneself  up  sympathetically  to  the  preacher.  This 
is  necessary  in  the  best  study  of  living  preachers.  One  has 
on  hand  the  task  of  analyzing  and  criticising  without  any 
loss  of  respect  for  the  preacher,  or  for  his  work,  or  loss  of 
responsiveness  to  the  truth  which  he  presents.  It  is  necessary 
to  cultivate  the  habit  of  combining  clear  mental  judgment 
with  personal  sympathy  and  respect  and  with  reverence  for 
the  sanctities  of  public  worship. 


64  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

3.  Analysis  of  published  products.  There  is  no  influence 
so  potent  for  the  youthful  student  of  the  preacher's  art  as 
that  of  the  living  exemplar.  Rut  it  needs  supplementing. 
The  value  of  a  habit  of  indiscriminate  reading  of  sermons  is 
more  than  questionable.  If  it  results  in  a  dominance  of  the 
reader's  mind,  it  may  be  pernicious.  It  is  doubtless  of  value 
to  absorb  a  sermon  in  an  uncritical  manner.  By  frequent 
and  even  rapid  reading  without  critical  analysis  one  may 
become  familiar  with  a  preacher's  product  and  catch  his 
quality  and  method  fairly  well.  One  may  come  very  readily 
to  detect  his  delicacies  and  subtleties  of  thought  and  feeling 
and  live  in  a  kind  of  fellowship  with  his  spirit.  It  is  possible 
and  desirable  to  know  a  preacher  in  this  way.  It  is  a  sort  of 
familiarity  that  lets  one  a  long  way  into  the  inner  life  of  a 
preacher.  There  is  much  in  a  great  preacher  like  Frederick 
Robertson  or  Phillips  Brooks  that  critical  analysis  does  not 
reach.  Some  things  it  never  can  reach.  We  come  into 
touch  with  a  ]>reacher's  dominating  spirit  by  letting  him 
speak  directly  to  us  through  his  product  rather  than  by 
effort,  to  reach  it  by  the  processes  of  critical  analysis. 

But  analysis  gives  us  much.  It  is  an  inductive  process 
that  gives  us  the  preacher's  method.  We  find  him  here  in 
his  workshop.  We  see  how  he  handles  his  tools.  It  gives 
one  a  knowledge  of  the  preacher's  range  of  subjects,  of  the 
quality  of  his  theological  teaching,  the  sources  from  which 
he  draws  his  material,  the  characteristics  of  his  expository 
methods  or  his  methods  of  interpreting  thought  to  the  mind, 
and  of  his  persuasive  methods,  or  methods  of  presenting 
truth  to  the  feelings  and  the  will,  his  methods  of  organizing 
the  material  of  his  discussion,  knowledge  of  the  different 
types  of  sermon  that  come  from  his  hand,  and  therefore  of 
the  school  of  preachers  to  which  he  belongs,  and  finally  a 
knowledge  of  the  peculiarities  of  his  literary  style. 

4.     Personal  experience  and   criticism.     The   skill   of  the 


THE  STUDY  OF  HOMILETICS  65 

preacher  is  largely  a  product  of  experiment.  Men  learn  to 
preach  by  preaching.  And  confessedly  it  demands  a  good 
deal  of  pluck  and  dash  and  eager  enterprise  and  unconscious 
absorption  in  the  actual  work  of  preaching  in  order  to  realize 
the  best  results  of  experience.  One  needs  a  large  measure 
of  freedom.  It  is  fatal  to  be  the  bond  servant  of  external 
rules  or  to  be  hampered  by  a  self-conscious  correctness  in 
the  free  and  noble  service  of  the  pulpit.  And  yet  no  man  will 
succeed  without  remorseless  criticism  of  his  own  work. 
There  are  two  points  in  the  genesis  of  the  sermon  where 
rigid  criticism  will  be  of  most  avail.  First  at  the  outset  in 
sketching  the  plan  of  the  sermon.  One  who  has  mastered 
his  line  of  thought  will  be  ready  to  plunge  into  work  without 
being  hampered  in  the  process  of  production.  The  more 
freely  one  works  in  the  development  of  the  sermon  the  better. 
But  no  one  will  succeed  in  securing  the  requisite  freedom  of 
production  without  careful  preliminary  work,  and  no  one 
secures  this  without  severe  preliminary  criticism. 

Another  point  is  at  the  conclusion  of  the  work.  After  one 
has  put  his  product  outside  of  himself,  alienated  it  and  put 
it  at  a  certain  distance  from  him,  he  can  turn  back  to  it  and 
as  from  without  subject  it  to  successful  criticism.  It  is  then 
and  thus  that  one  may  be  able  to  eliminate  imperfections 
without  much  danger  of  devitalizing  the  product.  The  en- 
thusiastic and  aspiring  preacher  will  also  covet  the  criticism 
of  fellow  students  of  his  art.  It  is  constant  criticism  that 
keeps  a  worthy  standard  of  excellence  before  the  preacher; 
it  discloses  the  gulf  between  the  product  and  its  ideal,  which 
the  preacher  is  endeavoring  to  bridge ;  it  evokes  dissatisfac- 
tion which  is  the  goad  of  effort ;  it  is  the  necessary  condition 
of  all  improvement  and  of  the  cheer  that  comes  of  success, 
and  it  constantly  enlarges  the  scope  of  one's  knowledge  of 
the  whole  subject  and  broadens  one's  reach  in  wider  fields 
of  service. 


II 

SECTION  SECOND 
SOURCES  OF  HOMILETIC  MATERIAL 


CHAPTER  I 

BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  PREACHER'S 
MESSAGE 

The  basis  and  largely  the  content  of  Christian  preaching  is 
Biblical  fact  and  truth.*  Despite  the  ravages  of  Biblical 
criticism  the  pulpit  still  holds,  and  doubtless  will  continue  to 
hold,  to  its  Biblical  sources.  It  is  generally  conceded  that 
the  historico-critical  method  of  dealing  with  the  Bible  has 
not  damaged  it  as  a  text-book  for  the  preacher.  It  has  been 
found,  in  fact,  greatly  to  have  enhanced  its  value.  Preach- 
ers have  frequently  availed  themselves  of  extra-Biblical 
sources.  It  is  no  new  thing  in  the  history  of  Christian 
preaching.  Scholastic  preachers  drew  from  Plato  and  Aris- 
totle, and  from  ecclesiastical  authorities.  Deistic  and  ration- 
alistic preachers  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries 
drew  from  works  on  physical  science  and  from  the  writings 
of  literary  men.  But  the  custom  has  not  generally  been 
regarded  as  an  index  of  the  wealth  of  the  theology  of  the 
church  or  of  the  dignity  and  power  of  its  pulpit.  In  fact  it 
has  often  been  regarded  as  a  mark  of  degeneracy.  In  our 
day  the  experiment  is  rare.  And  this  fact  may  be  regarded 
as  proof  that  the  more  freely  and  candidly  we  handle  our 
Scriptures,  and  the  better  our  conception  of  them,  the  more 
we  respect  them.  It  would  be  quite  impossible  for  any  self- 
respecting  preacher  of  any  school  in  our  day  to  turn  pulpit 
vagrant  and  to   exploit   extra-Biblical   writers   as   homiletic 

♦There  are  of  course,  other  sources  available  for  the  preacher,  but 
they  are  subordinate  to  the  Biblical  and  are  utilized  as  content  for  the 
development  of  the  sermon,  not  as  basis  for  the  discussion. 


70  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

authorities.  Once  in  a  while  one  may  hear  an  extra-Biblical 
passage  quoted  as  motto  to  a  sermon.  Occasionally  one 
may  hear  an  extract  from  what  is  called  secular  literature  in 
connection  with  the  Scripture  readings  of  the  church.  There 
is  no  objection  to  this  so  long  as  no  dishonor  to  the  Biblical 
sources  is  intended,  although  apparently  citations  from  out- 
side sources  would  be  far  more  efifective  in  the  main  body 
of  a  discourse.  In  occasional  discourses  in  connection  with 
exceptional  religious  services,  in  the  discussion  for  example 
of  some  theme  in  comparative  religion,  it  may  be  desirable 
to  place  a  passage  from  the  ethical  and  religious  writings  of 
paganism  beside  a  Biblical  passage  as  text,  although  as 
already  indicated  it  would  seem  to  be  far  more  effective  when 
introduced  into  the  main  body  of  the  discussion.  But  in 
connection  with  the  ordinary  services  of  Christian  worship  it 
seems  much  i)referable  to  hold  closely  to  the  Biblical  sources. 
The  preacher  is  in  general  precommitted  to  such  sources,  and 
his  commission  presupposes  that  he  will  not  stray  widely  into 
extra-Biblical  tields.  His  relation  to  the  Bible,  which  is  rec- 
ognized as  by  preeminence  the  record  of  revelation,  to  the 
Church  as  the  body  that  is  responsible  for  the  communica- 
tion of  Biblical  truth  through  preaching,  his  relation  to  the 
religious  needs  of  men  and  to  the  aim  to  be  realized  by  his 
calling — all  condition  his  sources.  It  would  lower  the  stand- 
ard of  the  pulpit,  it  would  discredit  his  proper  sources ;  it 
would,  whether  intentionally  or  not,  minimize  their  value, 
and  would  result  in  the  introduction  of  a  subject  matter  not 
adapted  to  the  nature  and  object  of  his  work.  Church 
preaching  rightly  presupposes  a  canonical  basis.  With  respect 
to  this  canonical  basis,  however,  there  are  some  questions 
that  call  for  practical  consideration. 

1.  The  first  question  is  that  of  canonical  genuineness  and 
authenticity.  What  j^ractical  questions  in  homiletics  Bibli- 
cal criticism  may  yet  raise  we  do  not  know.     Hitherto  there 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        71 

has  been  but  little  practical  difficulty,  save  in  the  hands  of 
crude  and  ill-balanced  men.  Neither  the  higher  nor  the 
lower  criticism  has  yet  very  seriously  affected  Christian 
preaching.  Theological  changes  have  had  far  more  serious 
results.  Textual  criticism,  however,  is  a  problem  of  prac- 
tical homiletic  interest.  Only  a  pure  text  can  be  the  best 
sort  of  text.  Spurious  passages,  demonstratively  such, 
should  be  ruled  out  of  the  pulpit.  The  preacher  should  know 
what  they  are.  The  revised  version  of  the  Scriptures  may  be 
relied  upon  as  a  guide  here,  but  the  preacher  should  be  able 
to  rely  upon  the  results  of  his  own  investigation.  We  draw 
freely  from  deutero-canonical  writings  in  cases  where  ques- 
tions of  authenticity  and  genuineness  are  of  but  little  practi- 
cal importance.  But  in  all  most  important  questions  the 
proto-canonical  writings  will  have  the  preference.  If  it  were 
important  to  quote  from  Paul  as  an  unquestioned  authority, 
the  proto-Pauline  writings  should  have  the  preference.  In 
such  case  one  would  not  quote  from  the  letter  to  the  He- 
brews, although  without  doubt  one  would  be  quoting  from 
the  Pauline  school  of  thought.  The  whole  problem  of  ca- 
nonicity  may  undergo  considerable  revision,  although  it 
would  seem  to  be  rather  late  to  revolutionize  the  canon.  But 
in  any  event  the  following  considerations  are  for  the  preacher 
worthy  of  attention. 

(i)  The  preacher's  attitude  towards  the  canon  is  naturally 
and  properly  one  of  good  faith.  It  is  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
word  conservative.  Homiletics  may  well  be,  and  in  fact 
must  be,  more  conservative  than  critical  exegesis,  or  than 
any  form  of  criticism  high  or  low.  Criticism  can  not  and 
should  not  accept  the  authority  of  tradition  as  a  guide  in  its 
critical  processes,  although  it  should  be  no  hardship  or  dis- 
credit to  treat  it  with  decency.  Criticism  is  necessarily  radi- 
cal. It  has  but  one  question:  What  are  the  facts  at  hand,  and 
what  are  the  legitimate  inferences  from  the  facts?     Of  course 


^2  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

in  a  sphere  involving  the  reUgious  interests  of  men  it  should 
be  duly  cautious  and  balanced  in  its  judgments  and  good 
tempered,  but  in  any  event  it  must  follow  its  facts.  But 
homiletics  has  a  prevailingly  practical  rather  than  scientific 
interest.  It  has  behind  it  the  historic  church.  Its  primary 
task  is  to  perpetuate,  to  conserve,  to  enlarge  and  enrich  its 
life  and  not  chiefly  to  revolutionize  its  thought.  All  changes 
of  thought  in  ecclesiastical  life  are  properly  slow  and  gradual. 
The  best  and  most  permanent  results  are  secured  when  they 
follow  normal,  evolutionary  processes,  rather  than  leap  into 
manifestation  by  violent  revulsion.  Homiletics  is,  there- 
fore, more  conservative  than  criticism.  It  is  more  tolerant 
of  tradition.  It  seeks  to  interpret,  to  conserve  and  perpet- 
uate the  truth  of  tradition.  This  is  done  most  effectively  by 
a  gradual  exposure  of  the  errors  with  which  it  has  been  asso- 
ciated, not  by  violent,  radical  and  revolutionary  attack  upon 
them  and  by  disintegrating  the  forms  in  which  they  have 
appeared.  This  difference  of  attitude  towards  tradition  in- 
volves no  ethical  contradiction  between  homiletics  and  criti- 
cism. There  is  here  no  necessary  compromise  of  truth  and 
integrity.  It  is  largely  a  question  of  method.  It  is  the  preacher's 
task  to  adjust  himself  to  the  requisitions  of  both  disciplines. 
(2)  It  is  confessedly  difficult  to  secure  thoroughly  reliable 
results  from  criticism  in  entire  independence  of  tradition. 
External  and  historic  evidences  are  more  important  than  the 
literary  critic,  who  is  likely  to  follow  his  subjective  preposses- 
sions is  able  to  see.  This  may  be  seen  perhaps  in  critical 
discussions  about  the  fourth  Gospel.  A  larger  respect  for 
tradition  should  at  any  rate  follow  late  critical  judgments  as  to 
the  dates  of  the  synoptic  Gospels.  But  in  any  event  until 
competent  critics  secure  more  harmonious  results  with  respect 
to  the  more  important  (luestions  of  Biblical  criticism,  e.  g., 
questions  relating  to  the  date  and  authorship  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  and  of  the  Epistles  that  bear  the  name  of  Paul,  the 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        77^ 

preacher  may  well  suspend  judgment,  or  at  least  be  cautious 
of  snap  judgment.  Only  fools  rush  in  where  critics  "fear  to 
tread."  Some  of  the  best  critics  of  the  day  call  a  halt  and 
bring  confusion  into  the  camp  of  the  pell  mell  gentry. 

(3)  The  harmony  of  contested  Scriptures  with  the 
Christian  circle  of  ideas  is  a  matter  of  practical  importance 
for  the  preacher.  Even  doubtful  Scriptures  may  well  be  re- 
tained and  used  in  the  pulpit  if  they  clearly  echo  the  original 
Christian  tradition.  It  is  on  this  ground  that  many  otherwise 
questionable  passages  find  standing  in  the  canon,  e.  g.,  the  first 
eleven  verses  of  the  8th  Chapter  of  John.  The  deutero — 
canonical  writings  will  doubtless  hold  their  ground  for  this 
reason. 

2.  A  second  question  relates  to  the  use  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  preaching.*  The  Old  Testament  has  been  found  to  be 
of  immense  value  for  homiletic  use.  Instead  of  being  a  drag 
upon  the  pulpit,  as  has  been  claimed  by  men  who  are  not 
authorities  upon  the  question,  it  has  proved  rather  to  be  a 
source  of  great  power  and  profit.  Doubtless  it  has  been  mis- 
used. In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  natural 
religion,  so-called,  found  touching  points  with  it.  The  book 
of  Proverbs  for  example,  was  a  fruitful  basis  for  a  sort  of 
preaching  then  much  in  vogue.  It  did  good  service  in  its  way, 
doubtless,  but  it  was  far  from  a  worthy  type  of  Christian 
preaching,  if  indeed  it  could  be  called  Christian  at  all,  and  was 
fruitless  of  best  results.  Mystical  preachers,  who  have  been 
afflicted  with  what  has  been  somewhat  coarsely  called  the 
"typological  concupiscense"  have  affected  Old  Testament  texts. 
This  extravagant  typologizing  or  its  modification,  allegorizing, 
this  wild  search  for  the  mystical  sense  is  of  Jewish  origin,  and 
the  conception  of  the  Bible  behind  it  is  Jewish.  It  was  ap- 
propriated by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and  was  passed  on 


*For  a  full  discussion  of  this  question  see  Die  Bedeutung,  des  Alten 
Testaments  fiir  die  Christliche  Predigt.   von  Ernst  Binderman,  Pastor. 


74  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

into   Protestantism.     As   this   conception   has  prevailed   there 
has  been  a  disproportionate  as  well  as  perverted  use  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  the  pulpit.     This  was  the  case  prior  to  the 
Reformation.     Little   distinction,   if   any,   was  made  between 
the  Old  and  New  Testament  points  of  view  in  the  handling  of 
texts.     The  Reformation  restored  the  New  Testament  to  its 
proper  place.     But  it  did  not  reform  men's  conceptions  of  the 
Bible.     It  checked  and  modified,  but  did  not  destroy,  the  "typo- 
logical concupiscense."     Luther  used  the  Old  Testament  ex- 
tensively.    Its  rhetorical  suggestiveness  was  of  great  value  to 
him.     He    highly    estimated    also    its    apologetic    value.     In 
theory  he  recognized  the  importance  of  getting  at  the  historical 
sense  of  the  Scriptures  in  preaching.     But  he  still  allegorized. 
He  still  held  the  mystical  sense  of  Solomon's  Song.     One  of 
the  chief  reasons  probably  why  the  Old  Testament  has  been 
so  largely  used  in  preaching  is  that  it  yields  itself  so  readily 
to  the  allegorizing  method.     It  has  wrought  powerfully  in  the 
imagination    and    emotions.     It    is    rich    in    its    rhetorical    re- 
sources.    It  has  furnished  a  great  amount  of  fruitfully  sugges- 
tive   but    misleading    preaching.     Luther's    allegorizing    was 
doubtless  a  rhetorical  interest  largely.     Modern  criticism,  that 
has  restored  in  exegesis  the  historic  sense  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, has  alienated  the  pulpit  somewhat  from  it.     But  misuse 
is  no  argument  against  right  use.     A  critical  reaction  against 
the  use  of  the  Old  Testament  would  result  in  a  very  serious 
loss  to  the  pulpit.     It  is  too  rich  in  homiletic  material  to  be  set 
aside.     Homiletic  use  takes  us  far  beyond  the  limits  of  strict 
exegesis.     The  question  is  so  important  for  the  work  of  the 
pulpit  that  we  may  well  linger  with  it. 

(i)  The  Old  Testament  is  of  great  value  to  the  preacher 
in  the  abundance  of  its  general  religious  subject  matter.  Here 
are  found  the  truths  of  universal  religion.  All  those  doctrines, 
which  have  been  called  the  doctrines  of  natural  religion,  are 
found  in  the  Old  Testament.  Thev  arc  assumed,  not  indeed  as 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        75 

doctrines  of  natural  religion,  hut  as  doctrines  of  Old  Testament 
revelation,  to  which  natural  religion  readily  responds.  And 
this  doubtless  accounts  for  the  sense  of  affinity  to  Old  Testa- 
ment religion  recognizable  in  all  forms  of  deistic  and  rational- 
istic religion.  But  these  truths  of  universal  religion  are 
available  in  the  Christian  pulpit  for  most  fruitful  and  practical 
use.  Here  also  are  the  germs  of  some  of  the  most  important 
New  Testament  teachings.  They  appear,  of  course,  in  Old 
Testament  form.  But  they  are  genuine  historic  germs.  In 
the  light  of  them  we  understand  New  Testament  teaching 
better.  Teachings  relating  to  the  attributes  of  God,  his  mercy, 
justice,  fidelity,  integrity, — teachings  touching  his  creative 
activity,  providence,  sin,  redemption,  justification,  resurrec- 
tion, immortality,  punishment, — all  appear  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  many  forms  and  have  historic  connection  with  the 
forms  in  which  they  appear  in  the  New  Testament.  Many 
of  them  are  illustrated  at  large  in  historic  form  and  are  ac- 
centuated in  the  Old  Testament  in  such  ways  as  were  not 
possible  in  the  New  Testament.  Thus  for  example  the  doc- 
trine of  the  covenant  so  prominent  in  the  Old  Testament.  It 
lies  at  the  basis  of  Old  Testament  religion,  and  is  illustrated 
in  a  profoundly  interesting  manner  in  the  history  of  the  cove- 
nant people.  All  these  teachings  become  a  foundation  for 
New  Testament  teachings. 

(2)  The  concrete  historic  form  of  the  Old  Testament  is 
of  immense  value  to  the  preacher.  All  its  teachings  have  a 
historic  background.  Its  truths  run  back  into  the  realm  of  fact. 
Hebraism  is  a  historic,  not  an  abstract  religion.  It  may  be  to 
a  considerable  extent  idealized  history,  but  its  idealistic  forms 
are  a  most  valuable  method  of  conveying  truth.  Pictorial 
representations  of  God  are  especially  valuable  for  pulpit  use. 
God  appears  here,  not  as  an  abstract  conception  of  the  mind, 
but  in  the  processes  of  personal  historic  self-revelation.  Here 
all  his  qualities  emerge  and  are  made  known  and  felt  in  his 


76  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

personal  relations  with  his  people.  Here  is  the  living  God, 
the  covenant  God,  the  jealous  God,  the  faithful  God,  the  com- 
passionate God,  the  righteous  God,  the  holy  God.  All  these 
qualities  are  more  than  conceptions  or  objects  of  thought. 
They  appear  as  realities  in  God,  who  enters  into  fellowship  with 
his  chosen  ones.  Anthropomorphic  doubtless  they  are.  and 
for  this  verv  reason  the  more  valuable  for  the  preacher. 
Nothing  can  be  more  vivid  than  these  representations  of  the 
divine  personality  and  of  its  active  presence  in  the  world. 
God's  manifestations  in  Providence  and  in  the  historic  move- 
ments of  his  kingdom  are  presented  in  the  most  powerful 
manner  conceivable,  and  in  forms  of  representation  well  fitted 
for  pulpit  use.  for  they  appeal  to  the  imagination.  Human 
virtues  and  vices,  individual,  domestic,  social,  political,  com- 
mercial, industrial  are  here  set  forth  in  living,  historic  illustra- 
tion. Few  passages  in  the  New  Testament  are  comparable 
with  these  Old  Testament  passages,  as  basis  for  the  discussion 
of  human  virtues  and  vices.  Recall  the  book  of  Proverbs,  the 
books  of  the  Psalms,  the  books  of  the  Prophets,  and  the  his- 
torical books  with  respect  to  their  portraitures  of  personal  and 
public  vices.  Robertson's  discourses  from  the  books  of  Samuel 
illustrated  the  resources  of  the  Old  Testament  for  the  discus- 
sion of  the  ethical  aspects  of  social  and  political  subjects. 
Some  of  the  best  moral  instruction  from  the  pulpit,  has  been, 
and  always  may  be,  presented  in  biographical  and  historic 
form  from  Scriptures  brought  from  the  Old  Testament.  For 
the  preacher  no  literature  in  existence  is  comparable  in  many 
of  its  features  with  the  biographical  and  historical  literature 
of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  of  immense  interest  and  profit  to 
all  classes  of  human  beings. 

(3)  The  vast  range  and  variety  of  Old  Testament  themes 
are  another  element  of  value  for  the  pulpit.  It  is  in  part  its 
concrete,  historic  form  that  secures  this  range  and  variety. 
Note  its    wide  range  of  personal    and  national    experiences. 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        tj 

Preachers  generally  go  to  the  Old  Testament  for  their  texts, 
when,  on  special  occasions  they  discuss  public  questions. 
Even  Schleiermacher,  who  undervalued  and,  I  venture  to  add, 
misunderstood,  the  Old  Testament,  and  who  on  ordinary  oc- 
casions, never  drew  his  texts  from  that  source,  turned  to  the 
Old  Testament  whenever  he  discussed  political  and  patriotic 
subjects.  The  war  in  defense  of  the  American  Union  illus- 
trated the  wealth  and  variety  of  Old  Testament  material  for 
the  discussion  of  national  and  patriotic  themes.  In  its  wealth, 
range  and  variety  of  material,  as  well  as  in  its  concrete,  his- 
toric form,  it  is  especially  well  adapted  to  historical,  biograph- 
ical and  ethical  discourses.  It  illustrates  a  great  variety  of 
ethical  principles  in  historical  and  biographical  form.  Luther 
noted  and  remarked  upon  the  fact  that  people  always  listened  to 
sermons  that  dealt  with  this  sort  of  Old  Testament  material. 
All  preachers  of  experience  have  had  occasion  to  note  the  same 
phenomenon. 

(4)  The  exuberance  of  its  rhetorical  forms  is  also  of  excep- 
tional value  to  the  preacher.  This  too  is  involved  in  its  concrete, 
historic  quality,  but  is  worthy  of  special  consideration.  The 
diction  of  the  Old  Testament  is  largely  that  of  passionate  feel- 
ing, and  of  poetic  or  semi-poetic  imagery.  Its  forms  are  those 
of  the  imagination  rather  than  of  reflective  intelligence.  It  is 
ecstatic  in  its  emotional  freedom  and  unrestrained  in  its  poetic 
license.  The  moral  passion  that  marks  the  utterance  of  the 
Hebrew  prophets  finds  no  parallel  in  the  New  Testament.  Our 
Lord's  moral  denunciations  and  warnings  were  often  terrific, 
but  their  moral  poise  was  the  most  striking  quality  in  their 
dreadfulness.  Paul's  rhetoric  was  exuberant,  often  reaching  a 
great  height  of  emotional  and  imaginative  eloquence,  but  as 
compared  with  that  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  his  utterances 
were  words  of  soberness.  Only  when  he  is  caught  up  into  the 
third  heaven  does  he  see  things  that  are  unutterable.  Then  only 
there  are  no  words  for  his  ecstasy.  Christianity  was,  doubtless, 


78  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

in  the  language  of  Dr.  Bushnell,  "a  gift  to  our  imagination," 
but  it  is  more  strikingly  true  of  Hebraism.  Recall  the  gorgeous 
imagery  of  the  Book  of  Job,  of  the  Psalms ;  of  the  Canticles, 
of  the  prophet  Isaiah.  The  New  Testament  has  nothing  com- 
parable in  pictorial  and  dramatic  quality.  The  Apocalypse  is 
more  akin  to  the  literature  of  Hebraism  than  to  that  of  Chris- 
tianity. Its  lofty  and  sometimes  grotesque  imagery  is  Hebraic 
in  origin  and  quality.  The  Old  Testament  has  profoundly  in- 
fluenced the  eloquence  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  Chrysostom. 
Basil,  Augustine.  Luther.  Bossuet.  and  moderns,  like  Robert 
Hall,  and  I  might  add  Theodore  Parker,  have  quickened 
their  emotions  and  kindled  their  imaginations  from  these 
sources.  Bushnell's  sermon.  "Spiritual  Dislodgments."  and 
Brooks'  "The  Conqueror  from  Edom."  disclose  the  powerful 
influence  of  Old  Testament  rhetoric  wpnn  these  masters  of 
English  style. 

Having  directed  attention  to  the  value  of  the  Old  Testament 
for  the  preacher,  let  us  briefly  note  some  considerations,  regu- 
lative for  its  use. 

(a)  Books  that  approximate  most  nearly  to  the  religious 
and  ethical  spirit  of  the  New  Testament,  or  that  represent  most 
fully  the  theistic  spirit  that  is  common  to  Judaism  and  Chris- 
tianity, may  well  have  the  preference  in  the  choice  of  te.xts, 
for  they  are  most  profitable.  They  readily  adjust  themselves 
to  the  needs  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  There  are  portions  of  the 
Psalms  of  which  no  Christian  preacher  can  make  use.  save  in 
the  way  of  contrast,  and  there  are  passages  in  the  books  of  the 
prophets  that  can  be  used  only  by  careful  adjustment.  But 
taken  as  a  whole  they  are  among  the  most  desirable  portions 
of  the  Old  Testament  for  homiletic  use.  As  by  a  homiletic 
"divination."  to  use  Richard  Rothe's  term  as  applied  to  Augus- 
tine's exegesis,  the  best  preachers  in  different  periods  of  the 
history  of  the  church  have  turned  to  them,  have  found  them- 
selves easily  domesticated  there,  and  in  their  use  of  them  have 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        79 

found  their  hearers  and  met  their  religious  wants.  In  the  apos- 
tolic and  patristic  periods  they  were  valued  for  their  supposed 
messianic  character.  They  doubtless  have  less  value  in  this 
regard  in  our  own  day,  for  modern  criticism  has  modified  our 
conception  of  their  Messianic  quality.  But  this  does  not  in  the 
slightest  degree  lessen  their  religious  and  ethical  value.  Origin 
drew  largely  from  these  scriptures.  So  did  Augustine  and 
Chrysostom.  Later  Luther,  and  later  still  the  Puritan 
preachers  of  England.  Spurgeon's  "Treasury  of  David"  is 
valueless  for  the  student  of  Biblical  exegesis,  but  it  is  of  very 
great  value  as  disclosing  the  wealth  of  homiletic  material  the 
Puritan  preachers  found  in  the  Psalms. 

(b)  Old  Testament  Scriptures  need  adjustment  to  the  New 
Testament  point  of  view.  It  is  of  course  not  always  necessary, 
for  not  infrequently  the  points  of  view  are  sufficiently  alike 
for  practical  use.  But  whenever  necessary,  it  is  the  preacher's 
task  to  make  the  adjustment.  And  it  is  not  difficult  to  pass 
from  the  earlier  to  the  later  stage  of  revelation.  Sometimes 
it  may  be  done  in  the  way  of  contrast.  Note  for  example  the 
contrast  between  the  earlier  and  later  Hebrew  conceptions  of 
death  and  between  the  Hebrew  conception  in  all  periods  and 
the  Christian  conception.  The  only  good  reason,  if  indeed 
there  were  any  good  reason  at  all,  for  choosing  an  Old  Testa- 
ment passage  as  basis  for  a  sermon  on  the  resurrection  would 
be  the  opportunity  it  would  afford  for  contrasting  the  Hebrew 
with  the  Christian  conception  of  it  in  its  formal  and  in  many  of 
its  material  aspects.  In  some  such  way  as  this  it  would  be 
easily  possible  for  the  preacher  to  familiarize  his  hearers  with 
the  contrast  between  the  earlier  and  later  stages  of  revelation 
without  scandalizing  them  or  disturbing  their  faith.  There  are 
strong  contrasts  between  the  ethical  points  of  view  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  These  contrasts  need  to  be  pointed  out 
in  the  pulpit.  It  demands  something  more  than  Biblical  learn- 
ing to  do  this  successfully.   It  needs  a  well-balanced  judgment 


8o  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

and  the  saving  grace  of  common  sense,  and,  above  all,  respect 
for  one's  fellow  men. 

But  the  adjustment  may  be  made  positively  as  well.  There 
are  many  Old  Testament  Scriptures  that  illustrate  religious  and 
ethical  truths  and  principles  that  are  universal.  Experiences 
there  recorded  find  their  counterparts  in  all  time.  The  prin- 
ciples of  God's  providential  and  redemptive  revelation  are 
illustrated  here  at  large.  The  old  becomes  type  of  the  new,  be- 
cause substantially  the  same  general  principles  of  providence 
and  redemption  are  at  work.*  But  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in 
mind  the  distinction  between  the  homiletical  and  the  exegetical 
use  of  the  Old  Testament.  Its  homiletic  suggestiveness  may 
very  easily  be  overworked.  It  is  very  fruitful  in  the  domain  of 
feeling  and  imagination.  Analogy  is  easily  overdone.  Poetic 
resemblances  may  obscure  fundamental  differences.  Typology, 
a  form  of  the  application  of  the  principle  of  analogy  to  exegesis, 
is  doubtless  an  important  principle  for  homiletics  as  well  as 
exegesis,  but  it  has  been  badly  overworked  in  both  departments. 
Analogy  may  run  wild  into  allegory.  The  preaching  of  earlier 
periods  was  badly  vitiated  by  it.  It  found  its  worst  abuse  in 
doctrinal  preaching.  But  this  homiletic  caprice  has  not  yet  dis- 
appeared. It  finds  a  most  singular  exhibition  of  itself  in  a 
modern  school  of  Biblical  literalists  and  especially  among  pre- 
millenarians.  They  combine  a  mystical  and  pietistic  fanciful- 
ness  and  emotiveness  with  an  extreme  literalness  in  their  use 
of  Scripture.  They  import  into  the  text  the  wildest  fancies, 
and  at  the  same  time  claim  that  they  hold  to  the  literal  sense. 
They  take  the  Bible  "just  as  they  find  it"  and  make  it  "inter- 
pret itself."  and  then  they  proceed  to  pull  out  what  they  have 
already  smuggled  into  it.  And  what  a  mess  they  make  of  it ! 
(c)  In  line  with  the  preceding,  it  follows  that  distinctively 
Christian  doctrines  or  teachings  are  not  found  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment.   The  preacher  should  remember  that  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 


*See  Tholuck's  Das  Altc  Testament  im  Neucn  Testament. 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        8i 

tures  belong  to  a  primary  and  subordinate  stage  of  revelation, 
and  should  use  them  accordingly.  Effort  to  find  Christian 
teachings  there  has  resulted  in  "wresting  the  Scriptures"  to 
their  own  injury  and  to  men's  hurt,  if  not  destruction.  It  is  an 
anachronism.  No  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  of  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  of  justification  by  Faith,  or  death,  of  the 
resurrection,  of  the  abode  of  the  dead  or  retribution  is  found 
there.  A  recognition  of  this  fact  is  very  important  for  the 
preacher, 

3.  Another  question  soliciting  brief  consideration  is  the  use 
of  the  New  Testament.  Christian  preaching  rests  of  course 
mainly  upon  the  New  Testament.  As  set  in  the  sphere  of 
Christian  worship,  and  as  designed  to  propagate  the  Chris- 
tian Gospel  of  Redemption,  it  is  pre-committed  to  a  Christian 
content.  It  should  take  us  into  the  very  heart  of  the  Gos- 
pel. It  should  deal  with  the  interests  of  redemption  and  with 
those  facts  and  truths  that  are  fitted  to  the  production  and  de- 
velopment of  redeemed  and  regenerate  character.  Only  the 
"truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus"  has  supreme  saving  power.  The  New 
Testament  has  had  precedence  in  the  best  periods  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  church,  periods  of  the  most  intelligent  knowledge 
of  the  Bible  and  of  Christianity;  periods  especially  of  most 
intelligent  religious  revival.  The  Reformation  especially  was 
influential  in  restoring  the  New  Testament  to  supremacy.  The 
reformers  were  driven  to  it  for  standing-ground  in  their  battle 
for  justification  by  Faith.  Luther  in  his  apologetic  preaching 
relied  largely  upon  it,  especially  upon  the  writings  of  Paul. 
Modern  criticism  that  has  fully  restored  in  exegisis  the  historic 
sense  of  the  Bible  has  turned  the  preacher  again  to  the  New 
Testament  and  it  has  become  nominative  for  the  use  of  the 
Old  Testament. 

But  what  portion  of  the  New  Testament  may  well  have  the 
preference?  Of  course  no  preacher  selects  his  texts  simply 
because  they  are  found  in  a  particular  portion  of  the  Bible,  or 


82  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

for  the  purpose  of  testifying  his  respect  for  that  particular  por- 
tion of  it.  Preaching  thus  based  would  be  likely  to  be  very 
unprofitable.  We  choose  our  texts  because  they  are  what  we 
want  to  fit  the  themes  discussed,  or  because  they  are  in  them- 
selves weighty  and  fruitful  and  are  what  we  need.  And  for 
precisely  this  reason  we  give  the  New  Testament  the  prefer- 
ence. But  among  the  New  Testament  Scriptures  perhaps  the 
most  fruitful  and  spiritually  helpful  texts  are  found  in  the 
Gospels.  We  go  most  readily  to  him  "who  spoke  as  never  man 
spake."  For  narrative  and  descriptive  texts  we  naturally  turn 
to  the  Synoptists.  The  fourth  Gospel  is  doubtless  rich  in  this 
material,  but  it  is  especially  weighty  in  the  discourses.  The 
historical  passages  in  all  the  Gospels  furnish  very  fruitful  texts 
for  a  class  of  sermons  of  which  we  hear  too  few  in  the  Amer- 
ican pulpit ;  vie,  didactic  sermons,  that  make  use  of  historical 
material  in  a  descriptive  and  pictorial  manner.  Popular  in- 
terest in  the  life  of  Christ  which  has  been  evoked  by  such  works 
as  those  of  Geikie  and  of  Farrar,  not  to  name  those  of  a  still 
more  weighty  character,  may  suggest  the  value  of  discourses 
on  the  life  of  Jesus,  in  which  the  narrative  and  descriptive  style 
is  introduced.  Books  like  "Philochristus,"  which  undertakes 
to  portray  the  life  of  Jesus  from  the  assumed  point  of  view  of 
his  contemporaries,  suggest  the  same  thing.  The  miracles  of 
our  Lord  furnish  material  of  immense  wealth  of  suggestion. 
Their  apologetic  value  is  doubtless  not  what  it  once  was.  All 
the  more  reason  why  their  homiletic  value  as  parables  in  action 
of  great  religious  and  moral  realities  should  be  the  more  fully 
appreciated.  The  Parables  are  peerless  in  value  for  the 
preacher.  The  fact  that  they  are  unquestionably  a  part  of 
the  original  Gospel  tradition,  their  unity,  their  wealth  of  sug- 
gestion, their  pictorial  form  and  the  analogies  that  appeal  to 
the  imagination,  all  adapt  them  preeminently  to  homiletic  use.* 
The  use  of  the  Gospels  in  Scriptural  selections,  for  example 


♦See  Lisco's  Die  Parabelii  Jesu,  exegetishclichomilctisch  bcarl)citft. 


BIBLICAL  SOURCES  OF  THE  MESSAGE        83 

in  the  Anglican  and  Lutheran  churches,  may  suggest  their  value 
for  the  work  of  preaching.  They  have  long  had  a  certain  prec- 
edence here  as  a  basis  for  Scripture  readings  and  for  texts.  In 
the  Anglican  and  American  Episcopal  churches  the  congrega- 
tion always  rises  when  the  Gospels  are  read.  German  preachers 
give  them  the  preference  in  their  selection  of  texts.  They 
might  well  have  more  abundant  and  varied  recognition  among 
the  preachers  of  all  communions.  We  find  here  the  heart  of 
the  Gospel  of  redemption.  Outside  the  Gospels  we  naturally 
go  to  Paul  and  John  for  the  weightiest  doctrinal  texts.  They 
develop  Christianity  most  fruitfully  and  fully  and  centrally  on 
the  didactic  side  as  James  and  Peter  on  the  ethical  and  practical 
side. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHRISTIAN    QUALITY    OF    THE    PREACHER'S 
MESSAGE 

We  have  seen  that  the  Christian  sermon  will  have  a  prevail- 
ingly Christian  content.  It  will  deal  with  such  facts  and  truths 
as  are  designed  for  and  fitted  to  the  production  and  develop- 
ment of  redeemed  and  reg-enerate  character.  What  these 
facts  and  truths  are  in  detail  it  will  be  unnecessary  here  to  con- 
sider. They  are  contained  in  one  all-comprehending  Christian 
theme.  That  theme  is  Christ.  Christian  i)reaching-  may  be 
summarized,  therefore,  as  preaching  Christ,  the  presentation  of 
him  as  the  inclusive  substance  of  the  preacher's  message.  Its 
content  is  redemptive  fact  and  truth  as  incorporate  in  him  who 
is  himself  the  fact  and  truth  of  redemption.  Truth  in  New 
Testament  usage  means  redemptive  truth.  It  is  the  content  of 
the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ,  the  hidden  purpose  of  God  in 
redemption  at  last  revealed.  The  Greek  word  dA7;^£ta  — 
truth — etymologically  suggests  the  Christian  conception  of 
redemptive  revelation.  It  embodies  the  notion  of  a  disclosure. 
Truth  is  something  no  longer  hidden ;  it  is  something  that  has 
emerged  from  obscurity  and  become  an  object  of  knowledge. 
This  conception  is  realized  in  Christianity.  But  the  object  un- 
covered and  brought  to  knowledge  is  concrete,  not  abstract. 
It  is  God,  God  in  Christ  in  his  purpose  and  work  of  redemp- 
tion. This  is  New  Testament  truth.  It  is  concrete  reality, 
reality  in  a  person.  It  involves  the  uncovering  of  God  Him- 
self. God  in  Christ.  Truth  is  truth  in  Christ.  Therefore  he 
said,  "I  am  the  truth."  I  am  the  reality  of  God  in  redemption, 
the  reality  of  his  person,  of  his  mind,  of  his  purpose,  of  his 


CHRISTIAN  QUALITY  OF  THE  MESSAGE      85 

character  as  righteous,  but  above  all  as  gracious,  the  reality  of 
His  redemptive  love,  the  reality  of  redemption  itself.  To 
preach  Christianity,  therefore,  is  to  preach  Christ.  But  what 
is  it  to  preach  Christ?  There  is  a  broader  and  a  narrower 
conception  of  it.  The  narrower  conception  would  concentrate 
wholly  or  chiefly  upon  a  fragment  of  his  person  or  upon  a 
single  aspect  of  his  personal  self-disclosure  as  the  redeemer  of 
men,  that  aspect  which  involves  his  priestly  functions,  and  the 
facts  and  truths  that  fall  within  their  limits.  Preaching  Christ 
will  confessedly  sometimes  have,  and  may  well  have,  a  certain 
narrowness  of  range.  Religion  itself  is  in  one  aspect  of  it  a 
narrow  thing.  But  it  is  world-vast  in  its  significance,  content 
and  result.  If,  however,  it  be  true  that  Christ  is  the  central 
reality  of  revelation,  of  theology,  and  even  of  moral  and  reli- 
gious history,  then  to  preach  Christ  must  have  a  broader 
significance.  To  preach  Christ  thus  is  to  preach  along  all 
the  lines  that  lead  up  to  him  and  run  out  from  him.  Preaching 
along  the  lines  that  lead  up  to  him  solicits  great  range  in  the 
use  of  the  Old  Testament.  Preaching  along  the  lines  that  run 
out  from  him  solicits  great  range  in  the  discussion  of  all  ques- 
tions that  relate  to  the  complex  interests  of  men  in  their  in- 
dividual and  associate  lives  and  relations.  Our  conception  of 
Christian  preaching  must  grow  with  the  enlargement  of  our 
conception  of  Christ,  and  of  his  centrality  and  supremacy  in 
the  world,  with  the  growth  and  development  of  human  society, 
and  with  the  enlargement  and  intensification  of  human  inter- 
ests. This  growth  of  the  conception  the  Christian  church  has 
witnessed.  It  is  manifest  in  the  early  Church  in  connection 
with  the  efforts  of  Christianity,  to  adjust  itself  to  the  expand- 
ing and  multiplying  interests  and  relations  of  men.  Com- 
pare for  example  the  earlier  with  the  later  preaching  of  Paul, 
if,  as  doubtless  we  may,  we  regard  his  preaching  as  illustrated 
by  his  letters.  Compare  the  eschatological  Christ  of  the  Thes- 
salonian  letters  with  the  cosmic  Christ  of  the  Ephesian  and 


86  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

Colossian  letters.  But  it  is  given  to  our  own  age  to  preach 
Christ  more  comprehensively  than  to  any  preceding  age.  Let 
us  now  note  some  of  the  elements  of  this  broader  conception 
of  preaching  Christ. 

i.  The  root  conception  involves  the  presentation  of  his 
personality.  He  in  his  own  person  is  the  concrete  historic 
embodiment  and  exponent  of  Christianity.  The  presentation 
of  Him  as  such  is  fundamental  not  only  in  our  conception  of 
preaching  Christ,  but  of  Christian  preaching  itself.  This  in- 
volves the  proclamation  of  Him  as  he  is  presented  in  the  New 
Testament,  for  this  is  our  only  primal  source  of  knowledge  of 
his  historic  reality.  Doubtless  the  Christ  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment needs  interpretation,  and  much  modification  in  the  forms 
in  which  his  image  is  presented  to  us  there  is  possible.  Men's 
conception  and  definition  of  the  supernatural  element  in  his 
historic  personality  and  in  the  events  associated  with  his  life 
may  be  subjected,  as  is  already  the  case,  to  much  revision. 
But  some  form  of  this  conception  of  a  supernatural  personality 
must  forever  attach  itself  to  his  manifestation  as  it  emerges 
in  the  New  Testament.  This  only  is  the  Christ  of  the  New 
Testament,  and  the  very  existence  of  the  church  is  identified 
with  this  personality,  so  unique  in  its  quality  and  relations. 
In  this  unique  personality  centre  all  the  unique  historic  facts 
that  are  connected  with  the  manifestation  of  his  earthly  life. 
This  proclamation  of  a  supernatural,  historic  person  of  itself 
gives  Christian  preaching  vast  range.  Christ  turned  his 
preaching  back  upon  himself.  He  himself  is  the  revelation. 
He  himself  is  the  revealer  of  God.  He,  therefore,  knows  him- 
self always  as  in  vital  relation  with  all  he  says  and  all  he  does. 
He  is  not  to  be  abstracted  from  it,  as  if,  apart  from  who  and 
what  he  is,  it  has  any  worthy  significance.  Nor  yet  is  he  to  be 
entangled  in  all  he  says  and  does  and  thus  become  a  morbidly 
subjective  character.  With  clearest  and  most  tranquil  certi- 
tude of  immediate  knowledge,  he   recognizes  himself   as  the 


CHRISTIAN  QUALITY  OF  THE  MESSAGE      87 

God-sent,  and  he  as  the  God-sent  is  of  more  significance  and 
importance  than  aught  else.  What  he  says  or  does  is  of  but 
relatively  little  importance  or  import  apart  from  himself.  But 
he  himself  has  chief  significance  only  as  related  to  Him  that 
sent  him.  To  accept  what  he  says,  therefore,  and  not  to 
accept  him,  is  not  to  the  purpose.  And  to  accept  what  he  did 
apart  from  what  he  was  as  the  God-sent  is  of  relatively  little 
importance.  To  accept  supernatural  events  even,  apart  from 
him,  who  was  himself  the  supreme  supernatural  and  spiritual 
reality  was  no  high  form  of  Christian  believing.  This  fact 
that  Christ  is  the  object  to  be  preached  demonstrates  that  he 
is  vastly  more  than  an  ethical  ideal  or  a  homiletic  model.  He  is 
the  very  substance,  the  very  heart,  the  very  pith  and  marrow  of 
the  Gospel  with  which  the  preacher  deals.  This  promulging 
of  Christ  as  a  supernatural  personality  was  the  center-point 
of  the  preaching  of  the  apostolic  age.  The  heart  and  life,  the 
matter  and  motive  of  it  all  was  the  person  of  Christ.  His  per- 
sonality gave  character  to  all  the  facts.  He  was  so  much 
bigger  than  any  or  all  of  the  facts  that  they  all  seemed  natural, 
no  matter  how  astounding  they  might  be  to  men  of  little  faith. 
Those  stories  of  tremendous  events  did  not  seem  distorted, 
disproportionate,  or  inharmonious,  because  he  was  large 
enough  to  support  them.  To  preach  those  astounding  facts 
aright,  therefore,  was  simply  to  preach  him  who  was  in  them 
all  and  gave  them  significance  and  character.  They  did  not 
raise  critical  questions  about  them  for  he  supported  them. 
Hence  the  astounding  stories  of  his  birth,  his  miracles,  his 
resurrection  and  ascension.  All  these  facts  were  gathered  up 
in  him  and  in  their  proclamation  they  called  it  all  preaching 
Christ. 

ii.  The  presentation  of  his  personal  character  is 
also  involved.  This  entered  variously  into  the  apologetic 
of  the  early  church.  It  supported  the  arguments  in 
defense     of     his     claims     and     even     in     defense    of     some 


88  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

of  the  chief  historic  facts.  The  story  of  the  conqueror  of 
death  was  simply  a  perpetuation  of  the  story  of  the  conqueror 
of  sin.  In  our  own  day,  however,  it  perhaps  receives  more 
attention  than  it  has  ever  received  before.  Ethical  preaching 
finds  its  norm  and  its  impulse  in  Christ  as  an  ethical  ideal.  As 
such  he  is  more  fully  presented  than  ever  before.  Christian 
preaching  is  apparently  destined  to  entrench  itself  more  and 
more  in  the  personal  character  of  Christ.  It  will  fall  back 
upon  that  character  as  the  ground  for  its  defense  of  Christian- 
ity itself.  As  at  the  first,  it  is  apparently  destined  to  have 
supreme  apologetic  significance.  The  time  has  come  again, 
and  under  wholly  new  conditions,  when  we  must  summon 
Christ  to  the  defense  of  Christianity.  It  will  no  longer  avail 
to  rest  the  defense  of  miracles  upon  external  evidence.  We 
must  summon  Christ  to  their  defense.  It  will  no  longer  avail 
to  rest  our  defense  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ  upon  historic 
evidences.  We  must  summon  him  to  the  vindication  of  the 
fact  of  his  own  last  triumph.  What  he  was  as  the  holy  one 
of  God,  who  conquered  sin,  renders  it  the  more  easy  to  believe 
that  he  was  also  the  conqueror  of  death.  What  Jesus  Christ 
was  as  a  historic  character,  as  interpreted  also  and  vindicated 
in  the  experiences  of  his  disciples  for  almost  two  thousand 
years,  is  in  general  one  of  the  strongest  defenses  of  Chris- 
tianity. His  miracles  do  not  so  much  support  him  as  he  them, 
iii.  The  presentation  of  him  in  his  official  character  is 
another  aspect.  Hereabout  have  to  a  large  extent  gathered 
the  distinctive  doctrines  of  grace,  which  have  generally  been 
regarded  as  the  Christian  doctrines  distinctively  and  preemi- 
nently. Here  are  found  the  doctrinal  presuppositions  of  Chris- 
tian ethics.  With  these  doctrinal  presuppositions,  including  of 
course  the  facts  beneath  them,  as  a  foundation,  ethical  preach- 
ing must  have  very  wide  range.  To  be  more  specific.  Chris- 
tian preaching  as  related  to  the  prophetic  function  of  Christ, 
to  his   function  as   an   authoritative  teacher,   deals   with   the 


CHRISTIAN  QUALITY  OF  THE  MESSAGE      89 

matter,  the  spirit  and  the  manner  of  his  teaching,  of  which  in 
another  connection  a  fuller  word.  As  related  to  his  priestly 
functions,  or  to  his  representative  and  mediatorial  character, 
it  deals  with  that  whole  group  of  doctrines  and  facts  that  relate 
to  the  reconciliation  of  God  and  man,  doctrines  and  facts  that 
have  had  vast  significance  in  the  historic  development  of 
Christianity  and  rightly  interpreted  are  not  of  less  significance 
and  importance  today. 

As  related  to  Christ's  regal  functions,  it  deals  with 
his  centrality  and  supremacy  as  a  moral  and  judicial 
authority,  and  as  a  controlling  moral  and  judicial  power. 
It  deals  with  the  exalted  Christ,  "exalted  to  be  a  Prince  and  a 
Savior."  It  deals  with  the  kingdom  of  God  as  related  to  his 
earthly  and  super-earthly  reign.  The  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  connected  with  the  regal  function  of  Christ,  for  it  is 
this  doctrine  of  the  exalted  Christ  carrying  on  his  redemptive 
work  by  the  agency  of  the  spirit  that  reincarnates  him  in  hu- 
manity. Modern  preaching,  as  related  to  the  official  functions 
of  Christ,  covers  much  more  ground  than  formerly.  It  deals 
not  so  exclusively,  and  it  deals  more  cautiously  and  realistically 
it  may  be  believed,  with  his  priestly  functions.  It  deals  more 
widely  with  the  ethical  aspects  of  his  teachings,  more  broadly 
with  his  life  as  an  exemplification  of  his  teachings,  and  more 
fully  with  him  as  a  regal  authority,  and  as  a  vitalizing  moral 
force  in  the  human  race. 

IV.  To  preach  Christ  is  also  to  interpret  his  teachings. 
We  may  discriminate  between  the  presentation  of  the  person 
of  Christ  as  an  authority  in  the  domain  of  truth,  and  the  inter- 
pretation of  those  teachings  that  are  the  product  of  his  teach- 
mg  function,  although  the  relation  between  them  is  in  fact 
mseparable.  For,  as  suggested  above,  the  teachings  of  Christ 
have  supreme  significance  and  value  at  last  only  from  their 
relation  to  his  person.  For  he  himself  is  at  once  the  revela- 
tion and  the  revealer.     But  much  of  the  preaching  of  our  day 


90  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

deals  witli  what  Christ  said.  Much  of  it.  doubtless,  ignores  its 
relation  to  his  personality,  or  finds  no  special  significance  for 
it  in  its  relation  to  his  personality,  and  in  so  far  as  this  is  the 
case,  it  is  superficial  and  is  shorn  to  a  large  extent  of  its  chief 
moral  power.  Jesus  can  not  be  successfully  abstracted  from 
his  truth  for  he  is  in  it  to  vitalize  it  with  moral  and  spiritual 
power.  The  words  he  spake  are  spirit  and  life,  for  he  who  is 
spirit  and  life  is  in  them.  His  teachings  relate  to  God  and  to 
man  and  to  the  relation  between  them  and  to  their  relation  to 
the  order  of  the  world.  His  teachings  concerning  God  relate 
chiefly  to  his  spirituality,  to  his  moral  integrity,  but  above  all 
to  his  Fatherly  benevolence.  But  this  is  not  abstract  teaching. 
What  he  says  about  God  is  interpreted  and  accentuated  by  his 
own  personal  disclosure  of  the  significance  of  his  message. 
What  he  says  about  the  high  nature  and  value  of  man  is  braced 
by  his  own  personal  disclosure  of  a  perfect  manhood,  a  man- 
hood which  is  the  type  and  norm  of  all  true  manhood.  What 
he  says  about  man's  relation  to  God  and  God's  relation  to  man 
is  interpreted  by  his  own  disclosure  of  himself  as  mediator 
between  God  and  man.  and  those  ethical  teachings  which  must 
furnish  the  norm  for  the  regulation  of  men  in  their  relations 
with  each  other  are  all  illustrated  in  his  own  perfect  moral 
character  and  life.  The  range  of  such  preaching  is  evident. 
To  preach  Christ  in  this  comprehensive  sense  is  to  present 
the  entire  content  of  Christianity  as  related  to  the  person,  the 
character,  the  functions  and  the  teachings  of  Christ.  He  only 
will  think  it  a  small,  a  narrow  or  a  limited  task  who  has  never 
tested  it. 

Upon  the  basis  of  what  has  already  been  said,  the  following 
suggestions  are  pertinent : 

And  first,  to  recur  to  what  has  already  been  said,  all  preach- 
ing that  is  based  upon  the  Old  Testament  is  summoned  to  gr\'e 
the  truths  derived  from  it  a  distinctively  Christian  direction, 
otherwise  it  will  lack  the  Christian  tone  and  chai^acter.     Such 


CHRISTIAN  QUALITY  OF  THE  MESSAGE      gi 

use  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  already  suggested,  is  possible. 
We  do  not  preach  as  Hebrews  or  Jews,  nor  from  the  Hebrew 
or  Jewish  points  of  view,  any  more  than  we  preach  as  inde- 
pendent speculators  of  this  boasted  twentieth  century,  who  are 
inventing  a  new  religion  and  a  new  theology. 

Again  all  material  from  extra-Biblical  sources,  and  the  range 
of  such  sources  may  be  well-nigh  boundless,  will  appropriately 
have  a  Christian  aim,  will  be  converted  into  Christian  uses 
and  take  a  Christian  tone  and  color.  All  roads  upon  which  the 
Christian  preacher  journeys  will  lead  to  Christ.  All  material 
drawn  from  any  department  of  human  knowledge,  from  his- 
tory, from  science,  from  philosophy,  ethics,  art,  industry, 
politics,  should  be  used  to  illustrate  Christian  truth,  or  the 
principles  of  Christian  morality,  and  should  be  subservient  to 
the  moral  and  religious  interests  of  men.  All  things  are  ours 
as  Christian  preachers,  but  only  under  the  condition  that  we 
are  Christ's  as  Christ  was  God's. 

The  pulpit  must  of  course  interest  itself  in  questions  that 
are  called  secular,  questions  that  do  not  of  themselves  belong 
to  the  original  message  of  Christianity,  nor  to  its  central  circle 
of  truths  or  facts,  but  only  to  their  practical  applications. 
There  are  questions  that  touch  the  domain  of  physical  science, 
of  social  and  political  science,  of  philosophy,  education,  art, 
industry.  The  Christian  preacher  is  interested  in  them,  as  a 
preacher,  only  in  so  far  as  they  relate  themselves  to  the  moral 
and  religious  welfare  of  men,  and  more  especially  to  the  de- 
velopment of  a  Christian  type  of  manhood,  and  thus  the 
realization  of  the  final  purpose  of  Christianity.  The  Chris- 
tian pulpit  must  take  its  central  truths  and  facts  out  into  their 
practical  relations  with  and  adaptations  to  the  earthly  interests 
of  men,  and  it  must  interpret  those  interests  in  the  light  of 
these  truths  and  facts  and  must  fit  them  to  every  human  need. 
All  such  questions  may  be  brought  within  the  reach  of  applied 
Christianity.     All  discussion  of  them  should  have  for  its  ulti- 


92  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

mate  aim  the  building  of  a  broad  Christian  manhood,  the 
enlargement  and  enrichment  of  the  life  of  the  church,  the 
dissemination  of  the  Christian  conception  of  all  human  Hfe, 
and  the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  This  surely  will 
not  fail  to  secure  for  Christian  preaching  an  educative  power 
in  human  society. 

The  Christian  content  of  the  sermon,  as  thus  conceived, 
will  depend  largely  upon  the  preacher  himself,  or  upon  the  man 
behind  the  preacher.  It  will  depend  upon  his  conception  of 
Christianity  as  a  Gospel,  upon  his  conception  of  Christ  as  the 
heart  and  life  of  that  Gospel,  it  will  depend  upon  his  theologi- 
cal tendencies  in  general,  upon  his  conception  of  the  proper 
aim  of  preaching,  on  his  general  and  specific  purpose  with  re- 
spect to  the  interests  of  his  fellow  men,  it  will  depend  upon 
his  moral  fibre  and  his  common  sense.  No  amount  of  homi- 
letic  skill  will  produce  a  Christian  sermon.  A  preacher  may 
have  a  text  that  palpitates  with  Christian  life,  he  may  always 
choose  such  texts,  he  may  win  themes  that  are  Christian  from 
them,  he  may  have  a  good  road  for  his  journey,  productiveness, 
suggestiveness  and  training  enough  to  grapple  with  the  task  of 
putting  his  material  into  sermon  form,  but  without  a  personal 
and  professional  purpose  to  handle  his  material  Christianly, 
with  personal  loyalty  as  a  preacher  to  his  master  Jesus  Christ, 
his  preaching  will  go  wrong,  it  will  fail  in  Christian  quality 
and  will  be  unproductive  as  to  the  great  end  of  all  preaching, 
the  Christianizing  or  in  the  larger  sense,  the  humanizing  of 
men. 


CHAPTER  III 

TEXTUAL  BASIS  OF  THE  PREACHER'S  WORK 

The  general  topic  introduced  here  is  the  text — as  related 
to  the  subject  matter  of  preaching,  and  it  includes  two 
branches,  the  significance  of  the  text  and  the  value  of  the 
text  for  the  preacher. 

I.  The  Significance  of  the  Text 
It  has  a  double  significance  and  may  serve  a  double  purpose. 
It  is  primarily  the  source  of  the  material  of  the  sermon.  It 
is  with  this  just  here  that  we  chiefly  concern  ourselves.  As 
source  it  holds  somehow,  either  explicitly  or  implicitly,  the 
germ  of  the  sermon.  No  matter  how  it  yields  its  material, 
whether  directly  or  indirectly;  no  matter  what  form  the 
sermon  takes,  whether  textual  or  topical,  its  primal  import  is 
the  same.  But  the  text  has  a  formal  as  well  as  material 
significance  and  purpose.  It  not  only  furnishes  the  matter 
of  the  sermon,  it  regulates  its  development.  It  conditions  the 
movement  and  so  the  form  of  the  sermon,  and  it  does  this 
largely  by  conditioning  its  material.  In  the  textual  or  exposi- 
tory sermon,  the  movement  is  directly  conditioned  by  it. 
Matter  and  form  are  both  immediately  dependent  upon  the 
text,  but  the  movement  of  the  topical  sermon  as  well  is  con- 
ditioned by  it.  It  limits  the  material  of  the  sermon,  it  condi- 
tions its  specific  quality  of  thought,  it  restricts  its  range  and 
should  influence  its  tone.  But  in  doing  this  it  has  a  certain 
influence  upon  the  form  of  the  development  The  text,  there- 
fore, is  as  significant  in  a  formal  as  it  is  in  a  material  sense, 
as  significant  for  the  topical  as  for  the  textual  or  expository 


94  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

sermon.     Upon  the  basis  of  this  statement  what  follows  may 
become  the  more  evident. 

1.  We  see  that  the  text  is  a  part  of  the  organism  of  the 
sermon.  As  containing  explicitly  or  implicitly  its  subject 
matter  it  is  completely  identified  with  the  organism.  This  is 
etymologically  suggested.  It  is  what  is  woven  into  and  all 
through  the  sermon.  It  is  its  texture,  its  tissue.  The  product 
is  somehow  spun  out  of  it.  The  main  thought,  or  it  may  be 
some  subordinate  thought  contained  in  or  suggested  by  the  text, 
is  the  raw  material  of  the  product.  Sermon  preparation  con- 
sists in  working  out  or  working  over  in  fit  form  this  raw 
material  into  a  new  fabric — the  sermon,  or  it  may  be  the 
homily.  It  does  not  stand  merely  at  the  head  of  and  outside 
the  organism,  it  enters  everywhere  as  a  pervasive  presence 
into  its  material  and  formal  development.  Between  the  text 
and  sermon,  therefore,  there  is  always  demanded  a  manifest 
material  connection  and  to  a  limited  extent  a  formal  connec- 
tion, A  text  that  stands  wholly  outside  the  sermon,  that  is 
not  even  a  figurehead  or  guide-post  to  indicate  its  movement 
is  a  radical  modification  of  its  original  significance.  Those 
who  advocate  the  topical  ideal  for  the  sermon,  generally  re- 
gard the  text  as  a  "rhetorical  device."  If  this  were  the  mean- 
ing of  the  text,  it  might  be  and  often  would  be  thrown  wholly 
outside  the  sermon.  It  is  evident  that  this  view  might  and 
often  would  very  seriously  aflfect  the  character  of  a  man's 
preaching.  Those,  however,  who  advocate  the  textual  or  ex- 
pository ideal  of  preaching  must  regard  the  text  as  the  very 
pith  and  marrow  of  the  sermon.  So  wholly  absorbed  in  the 
substance  of  the  sermon  is  it.  that  some  writers,  like  Claude, 
for  example,  do  not  treat  it  as  a  diflFerentiable  part  of  the  ser- 
mon at  all.  Homiletic  analysis  begins  with  the  introduction. 
The  text  is  lost  in  the  body  of  the  sermon. 

2.  We   may   infer   also   the   proper   position   of   the   text. 
Some  forms  of  scholastic  preaching  placed  the  text  after  the 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  95 

introduction.  There  were  in  fact  three  introductions.  The  first, 
after  the  manner  of  the  classical  exordium,  was  of  a  "general" 
rhetorical  character.  The  second  was  an  explanatory  intro- 
duction, dealing  with  the  text  and  context  and  was  called 
"special."  The  third  was  a  transitional  introduction  connect- 
ing the  exposition  with  the  theme,  and  was  called  "most 
special."  Thus  the  text  stood  between  the  first  or  general 
and  the  second  or  special  introduction.  German  preachers  in 
former  periods  have  been  in  the  habit  of  putting  the  text  after 
a  general  introduction.  Contemporary  German  preachers, 
however,  have  abandoned  the  practice  and  follow  the  British 
and  American  method  of  beginning  with  the  text.  If  one 
wishes  to  use  a  general  introduction  or  wishes  to  start  his 
homiletic  movement  from  a  distance,  it  may  be  well  enough 
or  even  desirable  to  place  the  text  after  it.  It  may  seem  to 
justify  the  preacher  in  a  greater  range,  if  that  may  be  regarded 
as  an  advantage.  It  permits  the  preacher  to  move  up  to  his 
text  from  any  quarter,  and  then  after  having  reached  it  to 
move  out  from  it  to  his  theme.  Thus  text  and  theme  are 
brought  and  kept  in  close  proximity.  It  is  well  to  follow  this 
method  occasionally  for  the  sake  of  variety,  but  in  general  the 
significance  of  the  text  settles  the  question  of  its  position  as 
at  the  head  of  the  sermon.  As  part  of  the  organism  of  the 
sermon,  introduction  and  all,  everything  by  supposition  being 
drawn  out  of  it,  it  should  in  general  stand  at  the  head. 

3.  It  becomes  the  more  evident,  also,  why  preaching  has  in 
the  history  of  the  church  been  prevailingly  expository.  Or 
better,  perhaps,  the  prevailing  method  of  expository  preaching 
explains  the  conception  and  use  of  the  text  as  the  source  of  the 
material  of  the  sermon.  Such  was  the  preaching  of  the  Jewish 
Synagogue.  An  Old  Testament  passage  was  the  text  for  the 
day.  Preaching  was  an  explanation  and  application  of  it.  It 
was  a  Scripture  reading  with  a  running  commentary.  In 
the  Apostolic  churches  an  Old  Testament  messianic  passage 


96  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

was  frequently  the  text,  and  preaching  was  merely  an  exposi- 
tion and  application  of  it.  Gradually  the  New  Testament 
writings  came  into  use  in  the  public  service  and  were  handled 
in  the  same  way.  This  is  said  to  have  been  the  origin  of  the 
New  Testament  Canon.  Writings  that  had  become  fixed  in 
this  homiletic  use  came  to  be  regarded  as  canonical.  H  this 
be  the  fact  the  New  Testament  has  a  strictly  homiletical  and 
practical,  rather  than  a  theological  or  scientific  significance 
and  value.  Preaching  was  prevailingly  textual  and  expository 
from  the  Apostolic  to  the  scholastic  period.  Scholasticism 
did  not  fully  originate,  but  it  developed,  the  topical  method. 
The  expository  method  was  modified  or  dropped.  The  Re- 
formation restored  it.  Ihc  reformers'  discourses,  resuscitat- 
ing an  old  scholastic  term,  were  called  "i)ostils."  that  is.  things 
that  come  after.  /.  c,  after  the  Scripture  readings,  namely — 
the  exposition  and"  application,  i.  c,  the  sermon,  or  more  prop- 
erly, the  homily  (postilla.  /.  c.  verba).  This  indicates  what 
the  prevailing  idea  of  j)reaching  was.  It  was  simply  the  inter- 
pretation and  application  of  Scripture  truth.  Hence  exegesis 
and  homiletics  were  closely  allied.  The  word  text  is  used  in 
both  disciplines.  In  exegesis  it  is  the  basis  for  exposition.  /.  c. 
for  note  and  comment.  In  homiletics  it  is  the  basis  for  practi- 
cal suggestion  and  application  as  well.  The  two  processes 
have  freely,  perhaps  too  freely,  commingled  in  both  depart- 
ments. There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  homiletic  work  that 
has  been  exegctical  anrl  there  has  been  much  more  exegesis 
that  has  been  homiletical.  Modern  Biblical  science  has 
brought  us  to  a  better  use  of  the  text.  In  such  use  we  have 
come  to  a  better  type  of  Christian  preaching. 

4.  It  is  evident  that  tofjical  preaching  is  a  departure  from 
the  primitive  type.  It  is.  in  some  sort,  a  concession  to  secular 
culture.  It  may  have  had  its  origin  in  tlk-  eulogistic  oratory 
of  the  i)atristic  and  prist-])atristic  periods,  or  in  the  discourses 
commemorative  of  the  martvrs  of  the  church.     It  was  more 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  97 

fully  developed,  as  above  noted,  by  scholasticism.  Modern 
culture  has  appropriated  it.  It  is  a  necessary  and  legitimate 
concession  to  it.  but  it  is  a  concession.  Classical  oratory  fur- 
nished the  original  type  of  the  pulpit  oration,  and  classical 
rhetoric  furnished  the  original  theory  of  it.  The  culture  of 
our  day  has  modified  this  to  meet  the  demands  of  modern 
types  of  rhetoric  and  oratory.  Topical  preaching  is  artistic 
preaching.  It  furnishes  a  sphere — and  at  its  best  a  good  one — 
for  the  legitimate  arts  of  the  rhetorician  and  orator.  Many  of 
the  most  brilliant  and  effective  sermons  of  the  modern  pulpit 
have  been  pulpit  orations  and  most  of  the  great  doctrinal  ser- 
mons of  the  last  three  centuries  have  been  topical.  They  were 
orations  or  rhetorical  disquisitions  or  addresses  on  religious 
themes.  The  use  of  a  single  passage  as  text  is  connected  with 
the  topical  method,  and  was  not  common  before  the  scholastic 
period.  Preaching  without  any  text  is  relatively  modern.  It 
is  one  of  the  developments,  if  not  one  of  the  abuses,  of  the 
topical  method,  is  exceptional  and  questionably  experimental. 
There  is  demand  for  topical  preaching.  It  has  enhanced  the 
power  of  the  pulpit,  but  its  value  will  depend  upon  the  spirit 
and  the  method  of  the  preacher.  It  is  here  that  the  personal 
factor  in  preaching  has  free  range.  This  may  be  a  great  gain 
or  a  great  loss.  It  depends  on  the  man.  It  may  at  least  be 
said  that  whenever  Christian  preaching  has  wandered  from  a 
Christian  basis,  it  has  generally  followed  the  topical  method. 
This  may  be  illustrated  by  the  preaching  of  the  deistic  and 
rationalistic  schools  of  theological  thinkers. 

II.  The  Value  of  the  Text 
The  text  is  not  a  fetish.  To  treat  it  as  such  is  demoralizing. 
A  superstitious  veneration  of  the  Bible,  or  a  conservative 
homiletic  habit  furnishes  no  good  reason  for  attaching  it  to 
one's  sermon.  If  a  preacher  has  no  use  for  a  text,  there  is 
no  use  in  his  having  it.     The  man  who  thinks  he  must  have  a 


98  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

text  is  likely  to  twist  it,  no  matter  how  pious  his  purpose.  The 
question  before  us  is  one  of  positive  vakie,  not  of  conventional 
or  superstitious  use.  No  preacher  has  the  vocation  to  defend 
the  use  of  texts  unless  he  finds  them  worth  while. 

I.  The  significance  of  the  text  settles  in  general  the  ques- 
tion of  its  material  value,  and  its  material  value  is  the  chief 
thing.  That  the  text  is  a  guide  to  the  sermon  is  an  important 
consideration,  but  that  it  is  in  any  sense  the  source  of  the  mat- 
ter of  the  sermon  is  still  more  important.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  more  Biblical,  especially  the  more  Christian, 
one's  conception  of  the  nature  and  object  of  one's  preaching  is 
— the  more  important  the  text  will  appear.  Reversely  also,  it  is 
possible  that  an  intelligent  estimate  of  its  value  may  favorably 
aflfect  the  whole  tone  of  one's  preaching.  The  text  at  any 
rate  binds  one  to  a  Biblical  content  of  truth.  If  the  text 
were  wholly  abandoned,  it  is  likely  that  we  should  in  no  long 
time  see  the  result  in  the  character  of  preaching.  The  text 
demands  something  distinctive  of  the  preacher.  It  puts  him 
under  certain  limitations.  Preaching  must  have  some  sort  of 
anchorage.  Biblical  anchorage,  at  any  rate,  holds  one  within 
Biblical  limits.  Preaching  that  has  anchored  directly  back  to 
dogmatic  theology,  or  to  naturalistic  ethics  has  never  given 
texts  a  fair  chance.  Coming  back  to  a  Biblical  anchorage 
ground,  preaching  has  given  texts  a  better  chance  to  show 
what  they  can  do  for  it,  and  what  they  can  do  for  the  preacher 
as  well  as  for  the  hearer.  The  preacher  is  much  less  likely  to 
stray  into  outside  fields  who  recognizes  himself  as  anchored  to 
a  Christian  text.  Preaching  of  this  sort  is  in  harmony  with 
the  needs  of  a  woishipping  assembly,  and  will  perhaps  be  less 
individualistic,  or  rather  erratic.  Preaching  without  texts  has 
often  been  of  a  degenerate  type.  Not  infrequently  it  has  been 
divorced  from  worship.  The  preaching  monks  of  the  Latin 
church,  in  degenerate  periods  have  done  this  and  have 
harangued  the  populace  in  addresses  without  texts.     The  ex- 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  99 

ample  would  not  be  a  valuable  one,  and  its  influence  upon  the 
Protestant  pulpit  could  not  fail  to  be  detrimental.  Scholastic 
preaching  sometimes  abandoned  texts.  Scholastic  proposi- 
tions could  easily  be  deduced  independently  of  them.  They 
were  of  but  little  dialectical  value.  I  direct  attention  once 
more  to  the  fact  that  our  better  modern  knowledge  of  the  Bible 
has  increased  rather  than  diminished  the  preacher's  respect 
for  Biblical  texts.  It  is  hardly  worth  while,  therefore,  for  the 
preacher  of  our  day  to  follow  in  this  matter  degenerate  periods 
and  degenerate  usage. 

2.  But  it  has  a  formal  as  well  as  a  material,  a  rhetorical 
as  well  as  a  logical  value.  Its  use,  for  example,  promotes 
concentration  and  unity  in  preaching.  For  it  binds  the  sermon 
back  upon  some  definite  center,  and  binds  its  parts  together. 
The  thought  derived  from  it,  or  suggested  by  it,  or  at  least  so 
passed  through  it  as  to  take  substance  and  color  from  it,  being 
pervasive  of  every  part  of  the  sermon,  it  conditions  a  process 
of  homiletic  limitation  throughout.  The  first  limitation  is, 
of  course,  in  the  text  itself.  One  can  not  get  all  there  is  in  a 
text  out  into  a  sermon,  even  in  the  textual  use  of  it.  This 
is  especially  true  of  the  topical  sermon.  One  selects  either  the 
main  thought  or  some  subordinate  thought  as  the  basis  of 
discussion,  and  excludes  all  else.  The  limiting  process  starts 
here.  Then  it  passes  over  into  the  theme.  For  one  can  have 
no  more  in  his  theme  than  he  selects  from  his  text.  The 
limitation  appears  also  in  the  introduction.  For  one  selects 
here  only  what  properly  introduces  his  subject,  as  based  upon 
the  limitation  of  text  and  theme.  Then  it  appears  in  the  plan 
and  discussion.  For  one  can  use  here  only  what  is  legitimately 
drawn  out  of  his  theme.  And,  of  course,  one  wants  nothing 
in  the  conclusion  but  what  is  legitimate  to  the  discussion.  The 
whole  movement  from  text  to  conclusion,  although  a  process 
of  expansion  is  also  a  process  of  limitation.  Nor  are  the  limits 
too  narrow.     For  they  condition  concentration  and  unity,  and 


lOO  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

so  strength  as  well  as  definiteness  of  impression.  A  sermon  of 
this  sort  may  range  very  widely,  but  it  will  be  within  legitimate 
limits.  Thus  by  conditioning  concentration  and  unity,  the  text 
becomes  tributary  to  rhetorical  effectiveness.  A  loose,  mis- 
cellaneous range  in  preaching  does  not  promote  effectiveness. 
A  straggling,  disjointed  sermon  is  the  weakest  sort  of  sermon. 

The  use  of  the  text  also  promotes  variety,  variety  in  sub- 
ject matter,  but  also  variety  in  form.  Each  text  furnishes 
its  own  proper  theme,  hence  there  will  be  as  many  themes  as 
texts.  Hence  wide  range  in  preaching.  Here  again  limita- 
tion involves  range.  To  select  what  is  distinctive  in  the  text 
as  basis  for  the  discussion  is  to  give  one's  preaching  broad 
scope.  Every  text,  if  it  is  worth  using  as  a  text,  suggests 
some  phase  of  a  subject.  In  general,  it  is  a  good  homiletic 
device  to  recognize  and  select  just  this  phase  for  discussion. 
The  use  of  the  passage  as  a  text  at  all,  so  far  as  this  is  prac- 
ticable, seems  to  call  for  it.  Consider  for  a  moment  the  many 
and  various  aspects  of  a  single  important  truth  that  may  be 
presented  by  iollowing  the  natural  suggestiveness  of  indi- 
vidual texts.  In  general  it  were  well  if  didactic  preaching 
especially  were  to  follow  the  lead  of  such  texts.  Texts 
are  for  the  most  part  concrete  and  specific,  not  abstract  and 
general.  They  take  color  from  their  environment.  The 
use  of  them  in  their  individual  characteristics,  therefore,  pro- 
motes not  only  concreteness  and  definiteness  but  variety  also. 
What  has  been  said  relates  largely  to  variety  in  subject  matter. 
But  it  has  a  bearing  upon  form,  for  we  get  as  many  types  of 
sermons,  as  well  as  specific  subjects,  as  there  are  texts,  e.  g., 
the  historical,  biographical,  doctrinal,  ethical,  aesthetic,  descrip- 
tive, evangelistic,  textual,  topical,  according  to  the  quality  of  the 
text.  The  text  conditions  form  and  type.  And  all  this  condi- 
tions tone  also,  for  the  sermon,  if  it  is  true  to  its  text,  will  echo 
its  spirit.     Now  all  this  enriches  preaching. 

And  this  leads  to  the  suggestion  that  the  use  of  the  text 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  loi 

promotes  productiveness  in  preaching.  It  quickens  thought,  it 
stimulates  the  imagination,  it  intensifies  emotion,  and  thus 
promotes  invention.  One  of  the  interesting  things  in  the  study 
of  modern  preachers  is  the  variety,  wealth  and  suggestiveness 
of  their  preaching  as  conditioned  by  their  use  of  Biblical  texts. 
It  is  a  notable  characteristic  that  they  are  inclined  to  select 
quickening  texts,  texts  that  suggest  thought  by  some  fruitful 
principle  of  mental  association.  Examine  the  products  of 
almost  any  characteristic  modern  preacher  and  it  will  be  seen 
how  greatly  the  preaching  is  enriched  by  it.  Even  the  old 
allegorizing  preachers  of  the  better  and  more  temperate  sort 
have  their  lesson  for  us.  No  professional  man  does  so  much, 
so  varied  and  so  difficult  intellectual  work  as  the  modern 
preacher.  It  would  be  utterly  impossible  for  him,  without  the 
use  of  suggestive  texts,  to  produce  the  same  amount  and 
quality  of  material  that  is  now  produced  every  week.  No  man 
but  a  rhetorical  genius  could  do  it.  Men  like  Cardinal  New- 
man have  preached  exceptional  sermons  to  exceptional  congre- 
gations without  texts.  Pastoral  preachers  have  rarely,  if 
ever,  done  it.  No  man,  in  our  day,  especially,  can  spin  out  of 
his  own  personal,  independent,  inner  resources  two  religious 
orations,  or  disquisitions  or  addresses  every  week  and 
expect  to  live  or  to  be  effective  for  any  considerable  length 
of  time. 

The  above  considerations,  it  may  be  submitted,  in  general, 
answer  the  objections  that  have  been  brought  against  the  use 
of  texts.  These  objections  have  been  to  a  large  extent  from 
the  rhetorical  point  of  view,  and  the  topical  method  has  been 
assumed  as  the  basis  of  judgment.  Three  classes  of  critics 
have  questioned  their  value.  There  is  the  man  of  a  strongly 
individualistic  tone.  The  pulpit  individualist  wants  more 
rhetorical  swing  than  he  fancies  will  be  possible  when  anchored 
to  a  text.  There  is  also  the  preacher  that  has  been  trained 
in  the  topical  method  and  is  a  rhetorician.     He  too  wants 


I02  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

scope  for  his  rhetorical  impulses.  Then  there  is  the  preacher 
of  a  rationalistic  bias,  and  he  is  impatient,  not  only  of  his  limi- 
tations as  to  rhetorical  form  and  as  to  the  aesthetic  interest  of 
the  sermon,  but  of  his  assumed  limitations  of  material  that 
diminish  the  didactic  effectiveness  of  the  sermon.  To  sum 
up  the  main  objections;  they  are  as  follows:  Texts  can  not 
be  found  to  fit  the  necessary  themes.  If  the  fit  is  made,  in 
many  cases  it  must  be  by  forcing  it.  The  use  of  texts  thins 
out  preaching.  Limited  by  his  text,  the  preacher  unduly  ex- 
pands his  matter.  The  use  results  in  stereotyped  method. 
Lack  of  range  from  text  limitation  involves  lack  of  variety. 
••  Hence  stereotyped  method.  The  use  limits  the  range  of  truths 
discussed.  Thus  modern  themes  are  excluded.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  some  of  these  objections  are  from  the  material 
point  of  view.  The  text  limits  the  use  of  material.  But  most  of 
them  are  based  on  the  assumption  that  the  use  of  texts  limits 
the  rhetorical  effectiveness  of  preaching,  and  on  the  assump- 
tion that  the  topical  method  furnishes  the  only  adequate  criti- 
cal point  of  view.  It  will  be  seen  also  that  they  are  really  a 
reaction  against  an  abuse  of  the  textual  method.  Well,  if  one 
allegorizes  his  text,  he  will,  of  course,  force  it  to  fit  his  theme, 
and  may  do  it  illegitimately.  But  a  proper  study  of  methods 
of  correspondence  will  show  that  this  is  by  no  means  neces- 
sary. If  one  selects  unsuggestive  or  small  and  barren  texts, 
his  preaching  may  be  thin.  But  it  may  be  the  man  rather 
than  the  text  that  is  responsible  for  this  quality.  If  one  uses 
all  texts  in  about  the  same  way,  and  that  an  unsuggestive,  un- 
imaginative way,  of  course  the  preaching  will  be  stereotyped. 
But  here  too  it  is  the  man,  not  his  texts,  that  is  responsible. 
If  one  uses  his  texts  in  a  prosaic  manner,  if  he  has  no  skill 
in  adjusting  them  to  the  current  thought  of  his  day,  he  may 
shut  out  modern  themes.  But  all  these  objections  fall  flat 
before  the  right  conception  and  habit  in  the  use  of  texts, 
whether  after  the  textual  or  the  topical  method.     What  has 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  103 

been  said  seems  to  me  conclusive  as  to  the  rhetorical  value  of 
texts,  and  equally  conclusive  as  to  their  material  value. 

But  any  man  may  settle  it  practically.  One  has  only  to 
examine  it  in  the  light  of  the  best  modern  preaching.  Take 
the  sermons  of  any  good  preacher  of  our  day,  and  examine 
carefully  the  influence  of  his  texts  upon  the  matter,  structure, 
tone  and  rhetorical  style  of  his  sermons.  If  it  is  perfectly 
evident  that  these  texts  make  little  or  no  con- 
tribution to  the  preaching,  if  the  preaching  might 
conceivably  be  equally  w^ealthy  in  its  suggestiveness,  if 
just  as  good  matter,  form,  tone,  style  were  possible  without 
them,  then  -the  case  of  the  critic  will  stand.  But  I  submit 
that  no  man  who  knows  the  facts  can  successfully  defend  the 
case  of  the  critic.  Test  the  question  by  critical  investigation. 
If  this  is  not  satisfactory,  test  it  by  personal  experiment. 

III.  Logical  and  Rhetorical  Qualities  of  the  Text 
By  the  logical  qualities  of  the  text  is  meant  the  relations  of 
thought  within  the  text  itself,  or  the  form  of  the  text  as  related 
to  its  connections  of  thought.  By  its  rhetorical  qualities  is 
meant  those  qualities  that  are  essential  to  clear,  definite  and 
forceful  impression. 

I.  The  logical  demand  upon  the  form  of  the  text  is  com- 
plexity,— that  is  the  text  must  contain  more  than  a  single 
thought.  It  must  be  so  complex  in  character  that  it  may  be 
put  into  some  form  of  statement.  By  it  some  definite  related 
thought  must  be  expressed.  It  must  contain  the  elements  of 
a  proposition.  It  must,  therefore,  have  the  elements,  not 
necesarily  the  full  form  but  implicitly  at  least  the  elements 
of  a  grammatical  sentence,  with  subject  and  predicate.  A 
single  word,  therefore,  is  never  a  proper  text.  It  suggests  no 
relation  of  thought  within  itself.  It  is  a  single  unrelated  con- 
cept. The  writer  once  heard  a  sermon  from  the  word  "there- 
fore."    The  theme,  if  memory  serves  correctly,  was  the  use 


104  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

of  reason  in  religion.  The  sermon  had  no  text.  It  furnished 
a  remote  basis  for  suggestion,  but  it  contained  no  definitely 
suggested  thought.  It  affirmed  nothing,  denied  nothing,  in 
fact  suggested  nothing  specifically.  It  had  no  relations  of 
thought.  It  led  no  whither.  One  might  as  well  have  taken 
the  word  "Universe"  as  a  text.  Bishop  Huntington  has  a 
sermon  entitled  "Names  and  Elements  of  the  great  change," 
based  on  the  word  "conversion."  It  is  not  a  text,  it  contains 
no  affirmation  that  aflfords  a  basis  for  discussion.  It  simply 
opens  a  boundless  range  of  thought  in  all  conceivable  direc- 
tions. It  contains  no  suggestion  that  it  is  one  of  the  names 
of  the  great  change.  Much  less  does  it  suggest  other  names 
or  elements  of  the  change.  It  does  not  cover  what  is  discussed 
in  the  sermon.  Regeneration  would  have  been  more  fully  in- 
clusive of  Faith,  Repentence,  and  Reformation,  as  well  as  of 
Conversion  itself.  But  that  would  not  have  been  a  text.  Nothing 
in  the  way  of  conciseness  is  gained  by  the  use  of  a  single 
word  as  text,  or  as  someone  has  called  it,  pretext,  as  this  ser- 
mon shows.  What  the  preacher  needs  in  his  text  is  a  complex 
of  related  thoughts.  This  demand  for  complexity  is  regu- 
lative for  the  use  of  two  or  more  passages  as  text.  In  such 
use  the  common  difficulty  is  that  they  do  not  readily  furnish  a 
single  complex  unified  thought  as  theme.  They  are  likely  to 
furnish  isolated  and  ununified  thoughts.  Take  as  an  example 
of  proper  use,  Bishop  Huntington's  sermon  entitled  "The 
Cross  a  Burden  and  a  Glory,"  from  Matt.  27,  32.  (Simon 
bearing  the  Cross)  and  Gal.  6:  14  ("God  forbid  etc.").  This 
is  one  complex  theme  if  we  understand  the  burden  and 
the  glory  as  one  romplex  contrasted  thought  to  be  discussed 
in  its  contrasted  relations  under  each  topic  of  the  sermon, 
rather  than  discussed  under  dift'erent  topics,  i.e.,  first,  the 
burden  and  then  the  glory.  For  this  contrast  between  the 
burden  and  the  glory  must  be  manifest  throughout  the  sermon. 
The  theme  suggests  the  contrast  and  the  sermon  should  keep 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  105 

the  contrast  always  before  the  mind.  The  preacher  uses  the 
text  in  this  way.  It  is,  therefore,  legitimately  used.  Take 
also  the  sermon  by  the  same  preacher  entitled  "Christ  Our 
Prophet,  Priest  and  King,"  from  John  6:  14  (Prophet).  Heb. 
2:17  (Priest).  John  18:33,  36  (King).  The  preacher 
discusses  each  of  these  functions  separately,  each  passage 
furnishing  a  separate  topic.  A  phase  of  the  entire  theme  is  not 
discussed  under  each  topic,  but  only  a  fragment  of  it.  In  fact 
it  is  not  the  theme  but  the  divisions  that  are  discussed.  The 
statement  of  the  theme  is  rather  a  statement  of  the  topics  of 
the  theme.  The  theme  is  a  complex  thought  embracing  all 
three  elements.  These  elements  should  have  been  discussed 
in  their  relations.  The  threefold  function  of  Christ  or  Christ 
in  his  threefold  relation  to  men  would  be  a  proper  statement  of 
the  theme.  From  this  as  a  basis,  each  topic  might  legitimately 
be  discussed  separately. 

2.  The  rhetorical  demand  upon  the  form  of  the  text  is 
that  it  shall  express  its  thought  clearly,  definitely  and  force- 
fully. By  which  is  meant  that  only  so  much  of  a  passage  may 
well  be  taken  as  will  promote  those  rhetorical  interests.  There 
are  writers  who  insist  that  a  complete  grammatical  structure 
is  always  necessary  in  the  form  of  the  text.  It  should  be  a 
complete  grammatical  sentence.  The  point  of  view  is  the 
textual  and  expository  method.  It  is  a  reaction  against  the 
use  of  single  words,  that  mean  nothing,*  or  of  disjointed  frag- 
ments that  pervert  the  meaning  of  Scripture.  Of  course 
textual  and  expository  preaching  demands  the  full  form  of  the 
text  passage.  But  some  who  hold  the  topical  point  of  view 
make  the  same  claim.f  The  ideal  here  is  the  statement  of  the 
theme  in  logical  or  propositional  form.  This  certainly 
demands  a  complete  grammatical  sentence.  Otherwise  it  is 
not  even  desirable.     Some  of  the  best  texts  are  short  frag- 

*Claude.     "On   the  Composition   of  Sermon" 
tSee  Phelps.     "The  Theory  of  Preaching." 


io6  THE  WORK  OF  THE  PREACHER 

ments.  They  are  properly  the  basis  of  themes  stated  in  rhe- 
torical form,  c.  g.,  Heb.  7 :  26,  "Separate  from  sinners" 
(Brooks).  James  i :  27,  "Unspotted  from  the  world.'* 
"Spotted  Lives"  (Brooks).  Rev.  1:9,  "The  Kingdom  and 
Patience  of  Jesus  Christ"  (Biishnell).  "A  Man  in  Christ." 
"Without  God  in  the  World."  These  passages  are  clear,  defi- 
nite, pithy,  although  mere  fragments.  They  encourage  a  vig- 
orous, sententious,  suggestive  type  of  preaching.  Preachers 
like  Bishop  Brooks,  who  put  their  themes  in  rhetorical  form 
use  such  texts.  Neither,  as  has  been  claimed,  is  the  whole  of 
a  connected  passage  necessary.  In  discussing  2  Cor.  i  :  3,  4. 
Claude  insists  that  the  entire  passage  should  be  used.  To  use 
only  a  fragment  would  mutilate  it.  He  is,  of  course,  right 
from  the  textual  point  of  view.  But  Professor  Phelps,  whose 
point  of  view  is  topical,  insists  that  no  part  of  a  connected 
passage  should  be  left  out.  This  is  arbitrary  in  a  topical 
preacher,  li  one  does  not  need  the  whole  passage,  why  pre- 
tend to  use  it  as  text?  If  one  can  get  a  clear,  definite 
thought  out  of  it,  why  not  use  it  as  a  fragment?  e.  g., 
2  Pet.  5 : 6,  "add  to  your  faith  *  *  *  temperance."  This 
conveys  a  perfectly  clear,  definite  thought  and  expresses 
it  forcefully.  Brevity  is  necessary  to  forcefulness  as 
well  as  in  general  to  clearness  and  definiteness.  Vigor- 
ous preachers  who  affect  the  rhetorical  form  in  state- 
ment of  the  theme,  and  who  are  not  expository 
preachers,  as  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  was,  or  textual  as  Robert- 
son was,  choose  short  texts.  For  the  topical  preacher  such 
texts  are  highly  desirable.  They  are  strong,  incisive,  impres- 
sive texts,  c.  g.,  "The  blood  of  sprinkling  that  speaketh."  "I 
have  called  thee  by  thy  name."  "Christ  who  is  our  Life." 
Short,  pithy,  energetic.  They  are  homiletically  suggestive  and 
disclose  the  wealth  of  the  Scriptures  for  pulpit  use.  Con- 
crete, especially  figurative  or  poetic  texts  are  tributary  to 
forcefulness   and   impressiveness,   and   for   the  most  part  to 


I 


TEXTUAL    BASIS    OF    THE    WORK  107 

clearness.  Not  only  the  attractiveness,  but  in  lar^e  measure 
the  impressiveness  of  Bishop  Brooks'  preaching  is  conditioned 
by  his  selection  of  short  and  largely  of  concrete,  figurative 
texts. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  PREACHER'S  WORK 

The  proper  subject  matter  of  preaching  can  not  of  course 
be  determined  independently  of  exegesis.  In  its  homiletic 
relations  exegesis  deals  properly  with  two  main  questions. 
The  first  question  concerns  itself  with  the  original,  historic 
sense  of  any  given  passage  of  Scriptures,  i.  e.,  the  sense  as 
it  lay  in  the  mind  of  the  writer.  The  second  question  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  truth  and  value  of  the  passage  for  homi- 
letic use.  First  the  true,  original  meaning  of  the  text.  Sec- 
ond, its  worth  as  truth  for  preaching  use.  Exegesis  and 
criticism  answer  these  questions.  Without  an  answer  to 
them  no  one  can  be  sure  that  he  has  a  proper  theme  for  his 
sermon.  It  is  expected  of  the  preacher,  therefore,  that  he 
will  be  a  competent  exegete  and  critic.  He  is  a  popular 
interpreter.  But  popular  exposition  must  be  based  on  scien- 
tific exegesis.  Let  us,  therefore,  look  at  these  exegetical 
and  critical  problems.  Their  homiletical  bearings  will  justify 
the  discussion. 

I.  The  first  question  relates  to  the  historic  sense.  Modern 
exegesis  has  anchored  here.  But  for  the  preacher  exegetical 
investigation  has  wide  range.     It  is  a  very  complex  problem. 

I.  It  is  first  of  all  a  textual  question.  It  starts  here.  For 
the  preacher  textual  criticism  has  a  very  practical  interest. 
We  must,  if  possible,  get  at  the  original  form  of  the  text.  An 
unsound  textual  basis  is  so  far  forth  an  unsound  homiletic 
basis.  Some  textual  corruptions  are.  indeed,  of  no  practical 
importance.  There  may  be  no  material  change  in  the  mean- 
ing of  the  passage,  or  a  better  meaning  may  have  been  se- 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK  109 

cured  by  the  change,  or  at  least  a  meaning  equally  good  and 
true.  The  original  meaning  of  the  passage  may  be  uncer- 
tain, but  it  may  not  in  either  form  be  compromised  for  pulpit 
use.  Romans  12:11  may  read  "Serving  the  Lord,"  or  "Serv- 
ing the  Opportunity,"  i.  e.,  serving  the  Lord  with  a  fervent 
spirit,  or  making  earnest  judicious  use  of  the  opportunities 
of  life,  and  so  being  wise  as  well  as  fervent.  Either  reading 
makes  a  good  text.  It  does  not  matter  which  one  selects, 
unless  it  becomes  perfectly  clear  which  is  the  original  reading. 
But  apologetic  and  ecclesiastical  changes  are  more  serious. 
What  sound  criticism  rejects  here,  the  pulpit  should  reject. 
The  Revision  has  led  the  way  in  securing  a  pure  text  for  the 
pulpit.  It  is  well  to  follow  it  in  choosing  texts.  But  the 
preacher  can  not  justify  himself  in  failing  to  make  a  careful 
examination  of  all  important  contested  passages. 

2.  It  is  a  grammatical  question.  "Grammar,"  says 
Immer,*  "is  and  must  remain  the  foundation  of  all  exegesis." 
It  is  a  question  of  words  and  sentences,  of  vocabulary  and 
syntax.  There  is  no  ghostly  science  that  can  teach  us  the  gram- 
matical sense  of  sacred  words.  "The  Scriptures,"  says  Me- 
lanchthon,  quoted  by  Immer,  "cannot  be  understood  theolog- 
ically unless  they  are  understood  grammatically."  We  know 
what  is  meant  only  when  we  know  what  is  said.  The  best 
exegetes  of  our  day  are  grammatical  exegetes,  Meyer,  Pflei- 
derer,  Ellicott,  even  Alford.  Far  better  than  hcmiletic  or 
theological  exegetes,  like  Lange  and  Olshausern,  are  Cremer, 
Wiener,  Buttman  and  Trench.  They  are  of  great  value  for 
the  pulpit.  We  make  a  beginning  with  grammatical  exegesis. 
With  this  as  a  foundation,  the  theological  exegetes,  who  deal 
with  the  course  of  thought,  may  be  of  value.  We  owe  Ger- 
man scholarship  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  work  it  has 
done  in  textual  and  grammatical  criticism.  It  is  true  that 
in  preaching  one  may  move  far  from  the  historic  sense  of  the 
♦Hermeneutics,  page  99,  passim. 


no  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

text,  provided  he  moves  on  a  legitimate  line.  But  no  one 
can  know  where  he  is  going,  or  whether  he  is  going  in  a 
legitimate  direction,  without  knowing  his  starting-point.  No 
preacher  can  fully  justify  his  theme  unless  at  the  outset  he 
knows  what  the  writer  meant  to  say.  The  historic  sense  is 
always  the  proper  starting-point.  Here  the  Revision  comes 
to  the  preacher's  aid.  It  has  ruined  some  old  translations, 
corrected  some  old  readings,  and  has  wiped  out  some  hymns, 
e.  g.,  Acts  26:28,  "Almost  persuaded."  The  first  question  in 
homiletics  is  the  question  of  exegetical  legitimacy  and  without 
grammatical  comprehension,  there  can  be  no  assurance  of 
such  legitimacy. 

3.  It  is  a  contextual  question.  Individual  thought  is 
known  only  by  related  thought.  A  text-passage  is  part  of  a 
larger  whole.  Biblical  theology  has  enlarged  the  scope  of 
our  investigation  into  the  context.  It  is  often  necessary  to 
get  at  the  scope  of  an  entire  document  in  order  to  get  the  full 
sense  of  a  single  passage.  Biblical  introduction  is  increas- 
ingly important  for  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  The  preaching  of 
Robertson  strikingly  illustrates  the  value  of  mastering  the 
course  of  thought  for  the  use  of  particular  passages.  He 
knew  Paul's  "root-thoughts."  Hence  he  knew  better  the 
meaning  of  individual  passages.  His  method  of  investigation 
was  a  combination  of  analysis  and  synthesis,  e.  g.,  the  tracing 
through  in  detail  of  the  thought  of  a  book  and  then  reversing 
the  process  and  bringing  to  bear  upon  these  details  once 
more  the  knowledge  of  it  as  a  whole  thus  gained.  This  is, 
of  course,  the  only  adequate  method  for  an  expository 
preacher.  Robertson  mastered  Paul's  theology  as  a  whole, 
mastered  the  whole  course  of  thought  in  a  particular  docu- 
ment, was  able  to  compare  it  with  other  documents,  and  so 
was  the  better  able  to  interpret  and  use  wisely  and  sugges- 
tively individual  passages.  He  who  knows  the  aim  of  the 
whole  can  best  interpret  the  parts.     This  is  one  reason  why 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK  in 

Robertson  is  so  reasonable,  so  clear  and  so  helpful  a  preacher. 
The  defect,  on  the  contrary,  of  such  preachers  as  Spurgeon, 
is  that  they  have  no  solid  exegesis  under  their  preaching.  It 
does  not  edify  intelligent  students  of  the  Bible.  It  does  not 
edify  because  it  does  not  correctly  instruct.  Such  preachers 
ignore  the  context,  or  misapprehend  it.  What  they  can  get 
out  of  the  individual  text  by  some  process  of  fruitful  sugges- 
tion is  the  important  thing.  No  matter  whether  legitimate 
or  not,  so  it  be  fruitfully  suggestive.  The  text  is  isolated  and 
treated  independently  and  is  made  to  mean  anything  the 
preacher's  fancy  is  pleased  to  find  in  it.  It  is  often,  doubtless, 
very  ingenious  preaching,  but  often  grotesque  and  offensive 
to  sound  exegetical,  as  well  in  fact  to  sound  homiletic  judg- 
ment. It  is  not  in  harmony  with  the  sobriety  and  rationality 
of  our  better  exegetical  and  homiletic  methods.  This  was 
the  sin  of  the  old  allegorical  method.  It  ignored  the  context. 
It  assumed  that  the  individual  passage  contained  an  absolute 
fullness  of  inspiration,  even  to  the  words  and  punctuation. 
Each  passage,  indeed,  had  several  meanings.  To  develop 
these  hidden  meanings  and  to  bring  out  for  edification  this 
fullness  of  the  mind  of  the  spirit  was  the  task  of  the  preacher. 
Whatever,  by  any  most  remote  principle  of  mental  associa- 
tion, or  by  mere  verbal  suggestion,  that  has  no  mental  associa- 
tion, is  suggested  by  the  individual  passage,  is  included  in 
the  inspired  word.  This,  of  course,  is  based,  not  only  on 
false  notions  of  exegesis  and  homiletics,  but  of  the  Bible 
itself,  as  well  as  of  revelation  and  inspiration.  It  is  mastery 
of  the  course  of  thought  that  saves  preaching  from  this  sort 
of  fancifulness. 

4.  It  is  sometimes  a  doctrinal  question,  doctrinal  in  the 
Biblical  sense.  Biblical  writers  must  interpret  themselves 
and  help  interpret  each  other.  In  order  to  understand  them 
we  must  first  isolate  them,  examine  their  teachings  by  them- 
selves and  then  compare  them.     Biblical  theology  is  based 


112  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREActlER 

I 
upon  this  principle.  How  will  one  understand  adequately 
Paul's  teachings,  for  example,  in  tlje  Epl-^esian  and  Colossian 
letters,  if  we  may  regard  them  as  Pauline>without  aomparing  > 
or  contrasting  them  with  the  teachings  of  the  Thessalonian 
or  the  Roman  and  Galatian  letters  ?  But  we  have  the  task 
also  of  comparing  one  writer  with  another.  vThfis-  gives  they  *' 
old  exegetical  principle  of  the  "analogy  of  faith"  a  new  mean- 
ing. It  is  the  analogy  of  Biblical,  not  dogmatic  faith, 'and  , 
this  demands  thorough  Biblical  inv^stigatjon.  feut  the  stress-* 
point  here  is  that  only  by  such  investigation  shall  we  secure 
the  fullest  guidance  for  the  interpretation  of  particular  doc- 
trinal passages.  Expository  preaching  from  Paul's  writings, 
for  example,  would  be  inadequate  ^nd  luifeatisfacloVy  without 
such  investigation.  Texts  are  properly  studied  independently 
of  dogmatic  theology,  but  never  independently  of  Biblical 
theology.  The  analogy  of  dogmatic  faith,  upon  which  such 
stress  has  been  laid  in  times  past,  has  perverted  the  use  of 
texts.  The  old  doctrinal  proof  texts  are  for  the  most  part 
worthless.  We  make  the  Biblical  writers  interpret  them- 
selves and  each  other,  and  this  furnishes  a  basis  not  only  for 
a  system  of  Biblical  theology,  but  in  general  for  more  correct 
as  well  as  more  practical  and  useful  work  in  the  pulpit. 

5.  It  is  a  historical  question.  That  is,  it  involves  study 
of  the  conditions  under  which  the  Biblical  writers  wrote,  the 
conditions  that  affected  their  education  and  habits  of  thought. 
It  makes  use  of  Biblical  Introduction.  We  know  more  in 
our  day  than  was  ever  known  before  about  the  Holy  Land, 
and  oriental  countries  contiguous,  about  the  Hebrew  race  and 
commonwealth  and  their  history,  about  contemporary 
nations  and  civilizations,  about  other  religions,  about  early 
Christianity  and  the  early  church  and  about  the  influence  of 
contemporaneous  philosophic  and  theologic  thought  upon 
them,  about  those  to  whom  the  early  Christian  writers  wrote 
and  about  their  conditions.     In  a  word,  we  know  more  about 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK       '   113 

time,  place,  circumstances,  conditions,  environment.  That  is, 
we  know  the  Bible  historically  as  it  has  never  been  known 
before.  This  knowledge,  coming  from  a  very  great  variety 
of  sources,  has  been  a  long  time  accumulating  and  a  great 
amount  of  it  has  become  a  common  possession.  The  Bible, 
therefore,  is  a  more  real  book  to  intelligent  Christian  people 
than  it  has  ever  been  before.  Knowledge  of  these  things 
makes  exegetical  and  Biblical  science  more  real,  and  it  makes 
preaching  more  real.  It  makes  the  life  of  Christ  more  real. 
The  realistic  biography  of  Christ  is  a  product  of  our  age.  All 
this  throws  light  upon  the  meaning  of  Scripture  texts,  and 
preaching,  influenced  by  this  historic  spirit,  method  and'  pro- 
duct, becomes  more  reasonable.  Even  a  modicum  of  this 
knowledge  will  make  itself  known  and  felt  in  the  pulpit.  All 
intelligent  preachers  of  our  day  are  under  its  influence. 

6.     It  is  a  rhetorical,  or  better,  a  literary  question.     A  lit- 
erary sense  is  an  important  factor  in  exegetical  and  homi- 
letic    sense.     No  one  knows    the  Bible    aright,  and  no    one 
can  use  it  aright  without  knowledge  of  its  literary  and  rhe- 
torical character.     The  rhetoric  as  well  as  dialectic  of  the 
Bible  is  distinctly  oriental.     Theology  and  especially  preach- 
ing has  been  greatly  enriched  by  the  recognition  of  this  fact. 
The   influence   of   Herder   and   of   the   German    romanticists 
marked  an   epoch  not  only  in   Biblical   investigation,  but  in 
preaching.     In   the   most   attractive   and   impressive   manner, 
It   directed   attention   to   the   poetic   character   of   the    Bible' 
especially  of  the  Old  Testament.     One  of  the  best  products' 
of  the  genius  of  Prof.  Park  of  Andover  was  an  article,  orig- 
mally  a  sermon  entitled  "The  Theology  of  the  Intellect  and 
the  Theology  of  the  Feelings,"  in  which  the  poetic  and  emo- 
tional character  of  the  Biblical  writings  is  recognized.     One 
of  the  most  striking  of  Dr.  Horace  Bushnell's  products  is 
his  article  "Christianity  a  Gift  to  Our  Imagination."     It  con- 
tained a  recognition  of  the  literary  character  of  the   Bible 


114  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

which  was  a  premonition  of  genius.  The  only  good  work  in 
theology  Matthew  Arnold  ever  did  was  in  directing  attention 
to  the  literary  character  of  the  Bible  and  to  the  need  of  lit- 
erary sense  in  interpreting  it,  and  it  is  this  chiefly  that  makes 
"Literature  and  Dogma"  respectable.  The  influence  of  men 
like  Renan,  whatever  our  estimate  otherwise  of  their  critical 
work,  has  been  strong,  and  in  much  salutary  in  this  direction. 
Biblical  critics  in  this  country,  like  Prof.  Briggs,  indeed  all 
the  more  intelligent  teachers  of  Biblical  theology  in  our  theo- 
logical institutions  have  made  this  a  commonplace  among 
intelligent  preachers  and  even  among  intelligent  laymen.  In 
all  intelligent  communities  it  affects  the  work  of  the  pulpit. 
An  investigation  of  the  rhetorical  and  dialectical  methods  of 
the  Bible,  particularly  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  especially  of  the  books  of  Job  and  of  Isaiah,  and  in  the 
New  Testament  of  the  writings  of  Paul  would  be  a  most 
interesting  and  fruitful  line  of  investigation  for  any  preacher. 
7.  It  is  a  religious  question.  A  religiously  sympathetic 
spirit  in  the  study  of  the  Bible  is  of  great  importance  with  ref- 
erence to  results  in  pulpit  use.  Christian  preaching  is  im- 
possible without  assumptions.  One  of  the  preacher's  assump- 
tions is  that  the  Bible  contains  a  word  of  God.  One's  early 
education  pre-commits  one  to  this  pre-supposition.  It  will 
not,  indeed,  dominate  any  intelligent  and  candid  man  in  his 
Biblical  investigation.  The  Bible  should  be  studied  as  any 
other  book  is  studied.  But  the  result  of  one's  study  as  well 
as  one's  early  education  will  surely  be  in  the  case  of  any 
devout  theist  the  intelligent  conviction  of  the  exceptional 
religious  character  of  the  Bible,  and  this  will  constitute  a 
homiletic  assumption.  One  cannot  begin  his  work  in  the 
pulpit,  without  the  assumption,  or  if  one  please,  the  intelligent 
conviction,  that  he  is  dealing  with  the  religion  of  revelation 
and  of  redemption.  This  religion  is  to  be  applied  to  the 
needs  of  men,  else  why  do  we  use  the  Bible  at  all?   We  may 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK  115 

appropriate  this  assumption  in  our  investigation  for  pulpit 
use  as  the  saintly  Bengel  did  for  exegetical  use.  The  preach- 
er's attitude  toward  the  Bible  is,  therefore,  somewhat  pecu- 
liar. He  investigates  it  for  preaching  use  in  the  main  as  jhe 
would  any  other  book,  but  in  some  respects  in  a  different 
way.  He  begins,  continues  and  ends  his  work  in  special 
sympathy  with  its  exalted  character  and  purpose.  Only  in 
this  state  of  mind  may  one  properly  enter  the  pulpit.  The 
preacher's  aim  is  precisely  the  aim  of  redemptive  revelation 
itself.  This,  of  course,  does  not  require  that  one  should 
suspend  all  critical  judgments.  Biblical  criticism  is  subject 
to  the  same  canons  that  govern  all  other  lines  of  critical 
investigation.  But  without  the  religious  spirit,  sympathetic 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Book,  it  is  impossible  even  to  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  truths  investigated.  Indeed,  without  it,  it 
may  be  impossible  adequately  to  get  at  the  meaning  of  the 
Scriptures,  that  record  these  truths.  Especially  necessary  is 
this  spirit  in  enabling  the  preacher  to  interpret  the  ideal  con- 
tent of  revelation  behind  the  historic  form.  The  pre-supposi- 
tion  of  the  ideal  content  is  the  presence  of  God  in  human  his- 
tory, his  presence  especially  in  the  history  of  Israel,  in  the 
way  of  redemptive  revelation.  It  is  this  that  furnishes  the 
key  to  the  interpretation  of  the  connection  between  the  He- 
brew and  Christian  Scriptures.  Only  by  the  assumption  of 
this  ideal  content  in  the  Bible  is  it  saved  to  best  use  in  the 
Christian  pulpit. 

Now,  of  course,  the  kind  of  work  here  outlined  will  require 
a  lifetime  for  its  accomplishment.  It  need  hardly  be  said 
that  it  cannot  be  successfully  applied  in  detail  to  the  study  of 
individual  Scriptures.  It  is  not  a  programme  for  textual 
investigation.  In  the  long  run  and  in  the  large  result  it  will 
be  found  that  the  best  study  of  the  Bible  for  pulpit  use  is  a 
general  and  comprehensive  study  of  it  and  not  merely  a  study 
of  individual  texts.     This  comprehensive  study  will  furnish 


ii6  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

an  ever-enlarging  and  enriching  basis  for  pulpit  work.  The 
more  comprehensive  and  thorough  one's  general  exegetical 
studies,  the  greater  ease  and  facility  will  one  acquire  in  apply- 
ing their  results  to  the  investigation  of  individual  texts.  It 
is  constant  and  varied  exegetical  practice  that  develops  exe- 
getical tact  and  facility  in  the  homiletic  interest. 

II.  The  second  exegetical  problem,  or  problem  in  Biblical 
criticism,  concerns  the  truth  of  the  text  and  its  value  for 
homiletic  use.  The  question  is,  how  much  weight  shall  be 
attached  to  the  thought  or  sentiment  of  a  given  passage, 
either  in  its  historic  and  primary,  or  in  its  secondary  or 
hidden  sense,  if  indeed  it  have  such  sense,  which  is  itself  a 
critical  question.  The  preacher  can  not  settle  offhand  the 
question  whether  the  Bible  has  an  ideal  content.  He  may 
idealize  his  text,  he  may  give  it  a  homiletic  turn  that  is  quite 
remote  from  its  original  meaning.  But  the  question  whether 
the  idealizing  process  entered  the  Scriptures  themselves  is  a 
critical,  not  a  homiletic  question.  Now  one  must  be  able  to 
answer  this  critical  question  if  he  would  secure  the  best  homi- 
letic use  or  even  the  right  use  of  texts.  Particularly  impor- 
tant is  this  in  didactic  preaching,  in  which  the  success  of  the 
sermon  depends  on  correct  teaching  and  on  securing  correct 
mental  judgments.  We  may  not  assume  that  a  given  text  is 
of  unconditional  homiletic  value  simply  because  it  is  found 
inside  the  covers  of  the  Bible.  In  fact  it  has  never  been 
assumed  practically,  however  it  may  have  been  theoretically, 
even  in  very  dark  periods,  that  any  given  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture is  the  very  word  of  God  simply  because  it  is  recorded 
there.  An  infallible  inspiration  of  the  record  could  never 
change  the  quality  of  a  thought  or  sentiment.  It  could  not 
make  it  true  if  it  were  false  in  itself,  or  good  if  it  were  bad. 
Nor  could  it  dominate  our  estimate  of  it,  so  long  as  we  have 
a  Christian  conscience  and  Christian  intelligence  left.  Texts 
differ  widelv  in  their  weight  and  worth.     And  the  range  is 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK  117 

all  the  way  from  the  absolute  in  value  down  to  the  worthless 
and  possibly  positively  pernicious,  if  not  rightly  understood 
and  used.  Now  it  is  the  task  of  criticism  to  test  the  value 
of  texts  as  regards  the  quality  and  measure  of  their  truth  and 
as  regards  their  fitness  for  pulpit  use.  We  must  apply  the 
proper  doctrinal,  ethical  and  historical,  critical  and  exegetical 
standards  for  the  purpose  of  testing  their  validity  and  worth. 
These  standards  are  furnished  in  part  by  processes  of  induc- 
tive investigation  into  the  phenomena  of  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures.  They  are  made  available  by  the  science  of  Bibli- 
cal theology  which  gathers  up  its  results  from  Biblical  criti- 
cism. The  one  supreme  doctrinal,  and  ethical  and  so  practical 
historic  standard  that  is  available  for  the  purpose  is  found 
in  the  New  Testament.  The  mind  of  Christ  as  it  appears 
in  the  life  of  Christ  and  is  disclosed  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  as  interpreted  according  to  sound  exegetical  prin- 
ciples is  our  test  for  the  worth  of  all  possible  Biblical 
texts. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  classify  Biblical  texts  exhaus- 
tively and  to  apply  this  test  with  reference  to  the  question  of 
use  and  thus  to  determine  their  value  in  such  way  as  would 
be  universally  satisfactory.  It  may,  however,  be  possible  to 
suggest  a  few  classes  of  texts  with  respect  to  which  an  intelli- 
gent preacher  will  find  it  necessary  to  apply  the  proper  criti- 
cal tests  in  order  to  determine  their  worth  for  homiletic  use. 

I.  Historical  and  biographical  texts.  One  may  not  as- 
sume unconditionally  and  uncritically  that  all  Biblical  pas- 
sages which  in  form  have  the  appearance  of  being  historical 
are  really  such  in  objective  fact.  It  is  a  well-substantiated 
critical  discovery  that  the  Bible  abounds  in  what  is  called 
idealized  history.  The  historic  form  is  adopted  as  a  Hterary 
device  for  the  purpose  of  conveying,  not  historic  truth,  but 
moral  and  religious  truth.  Such,  it  is  claimed,  is  the  book 
of  Jonah.     This   question  can  not  be  settled  by   dogmatic 


ii8  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

affirmation,  or  by  blind  adherence  to  tradition.  Whether  in 
a  given  passage  or  book  we  have  ideahzed  history  or  whether 
we  have  truth  under  the  form  of  myth  is  a  critical  and  a  lit- 
erary question.  We  must  apply  the  requisite  critical  and 
literary  tests  in  order  to  answer  that  question.  This  becomes 
practically  important  especially  in  all  cases  where  correct 
Biblical  teaching  is  involved.  It  is  not  safe  in  the  long  run, 
or  in  the  short  run  for  that  matter,  to  claim  more  for  any 
portion  of  the  Bible  than  the  case  will  justify.  It  is  not  safe 
to  confound  ideal  with  actual  history. 

2.  Prophetic  texts.  There  are  Scriptures  in  both  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments  that  claim  to  be  prophetic  in  the  sense 
of  predictive.  If  a  correct  report  of  his  words  has  reached 
us,  our  Lord  interpreted  the  words  of  Psalm  no  as  such. 
But  it  is  evident  enough  that  the  so-called  predictive  passages 
vary  very  greatly  in  their  approximations  to  historic  fact,  in 
their  conceptions  of  the  Messianic  King  to  whom  they  are 
supposed  to  relate,  and  in  their  correspondences  to  the  reali- 
ties of  his  historic  personage.  The  value  of  these  Scrip- 
tures must  be  determined  ultimately  in  the  light  of  the  New 
Testament  revelation  of  Christ.  It  is  necessary  to  find  out 
in  what  sense  and  to  what  extent  they  are  predictive.  It  is 
necessary,  also,  to  judge  how  far  New  Testament  writers 
were  right  or  wrong  in  attaching  a  predictive  significance  to 
them.  In  order  to  do  this  satisfactorily,  we  must  have  and 
apply  some  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  conditions  of  pre- 
dictive utterance,  and  of  the  place  which  prediction  holds  in 
the  gift  of  prophecy.  Critical  exegesis  as  applied  to  both  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  Scriptures,  that  contain  prophetic 
elements,  gives  us  the  knowledge  we  need.  The  value  of 
these  Scriptures  for  homiletic  use  will  depend  on  the  correct- 
ness of  our  conception  of  their  prophetic  character.  They 
have,  without  doubt,  done  duty  somewhat  indiscriminately, 
uncritically  and  illegitimately  in  times  past.     They  should  do 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK  119 

duty  more  discriminately  in  the  future,  and  it  is  perfectly 
evident  that  they  will  do  so. 

3.  Typical  texts.  It  is  a  difficult  thing  for  the  ordinary 
student  of  the  Old  Testament  to  resist  the  impression  that 
there  is  therein  a  typical  or  ideal  element.  Personages, 
events,  experiences,  institutions,  ordinances  are  regarded  as 
typical  of  what  is  to  emerge  in  future  periods  of  God's  King- 
dom. It  is  a  very  radical,  destructive,  and,  one  may  be  per- 
mitted to  add,  an  extremely  capricious  criticism  that  would 
deny  it.  It  is  only  a  form  of  historic  parallelism.  There  is 
a  certain  inner  principle  of  harmony  between  the  old  and  the 
new  life  and  order,  although  differing  widely  in  form.  One 
age  contains  types  or  ideals  of  future  ages,  because  we  have 
a  historic  development  of  redemptive  revelation.  Our  Lord 
seems  to  have  recognized  and  authenticated  this  ideal  con- 
tent in  the  Old  Testament.  What  emerged  under  the  old 
order  never  fully  reahzed  itself  historically  under  the  old 
forms.  Many  Old  Testament  Scriptures  seem  to  be  typically 
prophetic  of  the  Messianic  King  and  of  his  experiences.  Most 
New  Testament  citations  from  the  Old  Testament  are  from 
this  class  of  Scriptures,  among  them  some  of  our  Lord's 
citations.  But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  they  vary  in 
value,  in  theological  value  and  especially  in  homiletic  value. 
In  the  hands  of  many  New  Testament  writers  they  have 
doubtless  been  over-worked.  This  is  the  case  especially  with 
the  author  of  the  first  Gospel,  and  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews. It  is  entirely  possible  to  over-press  them  and  to  find 
types  where  none  exist.  The  Christian  pulpit  has  outdone 
the  New  Testament  writers.  It  is  easy  to  confound  an  ille- 
gitimate allegorizing  with  a  genuine  and  legitimate  typolo- 
gizing.  Even  genuinely  typical  Scriptures  differ  as  to  the 
sort  and  measure  of  their  inner  relation  with  their  anti-types. 
Critical  exegesis  settles  for  us  the  limit  and  the  value  of 
typology.     A  sound  knowledge  of  Biblical  typology,  won  in 


I20  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

the  light  of  all  the  best  and  the  fullest  that  may  be  ascertained 
in  our  day,  is  necessary  to  determine  the  value  of  typical 
Scriptures  for  pulpit  use.  It  is  especially  important  for  the 
preacher  to  remember  that  what  may  be  available  for  him  in 
the  pulpit  by  way  of  homiletic  adaptation  in  accordance  with 
some  legitimate  principle  of  associated  ideas  may  not  be  avail- 
able for  him  exegetically.  What  may  be  true  in  homiletics  may 
be  false  in  exegesis. 

4.  Allegorical  texts.  There  is  unquestionably  in  the  New 
Testament  an  allegorical  use  of  the  Old  Testament.  That  is, 
we  find  a  fanciful  and  strained  use  of  analogy.  It  appears 
in  the  Gospels,  especially  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and 
even  in  the  writings  of  Paul.  There  is  a  marked  difference,  as 
Tholuck  has  shown,*  between  Christ's  use  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  that  of  the  New  Testament  writers  in  general.  It 
is  the  difference  between  real  and  fanciful  likenesses,  between 
a  connection  of  thought  that  is  internal  and  near  at  hand,  and 
one  that  is  relatively  external  and  remote.  The  suffering 
servant  of  Jehovah  (Is.  53)  may  be  regarded  as  a  true 
analogue  of  the  suffering  Messianic  King.  But  Hagar  and 
Ishmael  as  related  to  Sarah  and  Isaac  in  Paul's  use  in  the 
Galatian  letter  are  allegorized.  They  are  fanciful  analogies 
of  the  two  covenants.  Judiciously-used  allegorized  texts  may 
be  of  value  in  preaching.  But  allegorizing  should  always  be 
recognized  as  such.  It  may  have  its  rhetorical  uses.  But  it 
has  no  didactic  value.  A  failure  to  recognize  it  as  a  rhetor- 
ical device  has  wrought  much  mischief  in  the  pulpit.  Now  it  is 
the  science  of  New  'I'estament  Hermeneutics  that  will  furnish 
a  test  of  value  for  allegorizing,  and  we  shall  find  in  Christ's 
use  of  the  principle  of  analogy  a  safe  guide.  No  one  is  likely 
to  make  a  legitimate  use  of  the  parables  of  our  Lord  in 
preaching  who  does  not  know  that  in  exegesis  they  cannot 
be  allegorized.     He  who  recognizes  this  exegetical  principle 

♦Das  Ahe  Testament  im  Neuen  Testament. 


EXEGETICAL  BASIS  OF  THE  WORK  121 

is  much  more  likely  to  make  legitimate  use  of  the  analogies 
they  contain. 

5-     Doctrinal  texts.     Whether  a  given  text  mav  be  used 
didactically,  or  whether  it  may  be  used  to  teach  definite  and 
explicit  doctrines,  is  a  critical  question  which  must  be  settled 
m  part  by  a  knowledge  of  the  literary  or  rhetorical  character 
of  the  passage  and  perhaps  of  the  book  in  which  it  is  found 
It  is  necessary  to  distinguish  between  the  language  of  imagi- 
nation and  feeling,  the  language  of  poetry  or  fiction  and  the 
language  of  the  understanding,  the  language  of  mental  judg- 
ment whose  object  is  to  convey  a  definite  explicit  teaching  to 
the  mind.     Poetry  and  fiction  should  not  be  used  to  teach 
doctrine  unless  it   be  recognized   as   poetrv   or   fiction,   and 
unless   the   teaclnng  is   recognized   as   an   inference   from   it 
conveyed  to  the  mind  through  the  imagination.     Moreover 
whether  a  given  passage  is  true,  or  in  what  seems  true,  or  to 
what  extent  true,  is  a  critical  question.       The  teaching  of 
Christ  in  general  furnishes  a  test  for  one's  estimate  of  Old 
Testament  teaching  and  of  its  worth  for  Christian  preaching. 
The  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus"  tests  all  half  truths  and  all  false 
utterances  that  are  sometimes  found  in  the  Old  Testament 
and  in  the  New  Testament  as  well.     The  value  of  the  book  of 
Ecclesiastes   and   of  Job   for  direct,   authoritative   teaching, 
however  striking  their  utterances,  is  quite  limited.       Their 
cachings  should  be  recognized  for  what  they  are.  and  no 
false    estimates    should    be    tolerated    in    the    pulpit        The 
preacher  should   know  their  value   as   sources   of   religious 
knowledge    and  as  a  correct  basis  for  preaching,  before  he 
can   use   them  properly.     When   he   understands   them    cor- 
rectly, then  he  IS  in  position  to  use  them  legitimately. 
6.     Ethical  texts.     The  ethics  of  Christ  to  which  the  mind 

estond'ir^h"  ^'  r  ^""^'  ^"  ^^^  ^^^-^  -^  Christ  always 
respond  is  the  preacher's  test  for  all  Biblical  ethics.  Old 
Testament  ethics  needs  constantly  to  be  brought  to  this  test 


122  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

the  imprecatory  Psalms  for  example.  Within  the  limits  of 
this  test,  whatever  there  is  in  them  of  ethical  value  may  be 
made  use  of  by  the  Christian  preacher.  There  are  texts  in 
both  the  New  and  Old  Testament  that  in  spirit  and  sentiment 
are  grossly  immoral,  but  in  form  they  may  convey  valuable 
ethical  suggestions.  The  words  of  Caiaphas  for  example,  in 
John  1 1  :  49,  50,  recall  Robertson's  sermon  from  them.  The 
words  of  the  Jewish  ecclesiastics  at  the  cross  "He  saved 
others;  himself  he  cannot  save."  The  words  of  Judas;  "To 
what  purpose  is  this  waste?"  Such  texts  have  been  used 
with  good  effect.  But  their  real  significance  should  never 
be  ignored.  Contrast  is  the  only  principle  that  makes  them 
admissible.  In  a  word,  there  is  no  assignable  limit  to  the 
scope  of  the  preacher's  use  of  Scriptures  that  are  doctrinately 
and  ethically  defective,  provided  their  real  character  be  duly 
recognized  and  provided  they  be  adjusted  to  the  Christian 
point  of  view.  Robertson's  sermon  above  referred  to  illus- 
trates the  value  of  such  texts. 


CHAPTER  V 

HOMILETIC  CORRESPONDENCES  IN  THE  USE  OF 

THE  TEXT 

Exegesis,  as  we  have  already  seen,  guides  but  does  not  fix 
our  limits  in  the  homiletic  use  of  texts.  A  text  may  receive 
a  homiletic  turn  and  use  of  which  exegesis  knows  nothing 
whatever.  The  one  supreme  and  inclusive  interest  in  the  use 
of  the  text  is  an  adequate  correspondence  between  the  text 
and  the  sermon.  As  already  suggested,  the  matter  of  the  ser- 
mon must  be  drawn  somehow  legitimately  out  of  the  text  or 
drawn  through  it  so  as  to  take  fibre,  color,  shape  and  direc- 
tion from  it  and  thus  a  correspondence  be  realized  between 
the  text  and  the  substance,  sentiment  and  object  of  the 
sermon. 

There  are  two  correspondences  that  should  be  realized,  cor- 
respondence of  thought  and  correspondence  of  tone.  We 
will  consider  them  in  order. 

I.  Correspondence  of  thought.  The  thought-matter  of 
a  sermon  must  be  evolved  somehow  from  the  thought-matter 
contained  in  or  somehow  suggested  by  the  text.  The  sermon 
in  its  developed  form  harmonizes  at  every  point  with  the 
thought  that  lies  in  the  text,  or  is  drawn  out  of  it,  or  drawn 
through  it  by  some  legitimate  process  of  suggestion.  This 
correspondence  may  be  direct  and  immediate,  or  it  may  be 
indirect  and  remote.  The  text  may  yield  the  material  of 
thought  by  explicit  declaration  or  by  some  process  of  infer- 
ence, deduction  or  suggestion.  One  may  carry  the  thought 
of  the  text,  the  main  or  some  subordinate  thought  straight 
over  into  the  theme,  or  one  may  deduce  it  by  some  process 


124  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

of  mental  association,  or  by  some  sort  of  literary  adaptation. 
Let  us  examine  these  two  methods  of  correspondence,  the 
direct  or  explicit  and  the  indirect  and  implicit. 

I.  The  direct  or  explicit  correspondence.  The  text  states 
the  theme  in  definite  and  explicit  terms,  sometimes  in  almost 
identical  terms,  e.g.,  James  4:  17,  "To  him  that  knoweth  to 
do  good,''  etc.  Theme:  "The  sin  of  omission."  James 
2:10.  "For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,"  etc. 
Theme :  "Sin  a  violation  of  the  law  in  its  totality."  Here  the 
text  at  once  determines  the  theme.  One  would  not  readily 
think  of  any  other  theme.  Some  other  might  be  excogitated, 
but  it  would  come  by  an  indirect  process.  Reversely,  the 
theme  asks  for  just  this  text.  Probably  no  other  passage  in 
the  Bible  would  fit  the  theme  so  well.  Such  texts,  if  they 
can  be  found,  are  desirable  in  the  discussion  of  weighty 
ethical  or  doctrinal  subjects.  That  is  a  perfect  text  for  such 
use  of  which  you  can  say  that  it  explicitly  suggests  but  this 
one  theme  and  that  its  theme  could  have  but  this  one  or  at 
least  no  better  text.  It  contains  nothing  less  than  the  theme, 
and  nothing  from  without  is  to  be  mentally  supplied.  It 
contains  nothing  more  and  nothing  is  to  be  thrown  out  as 
irrelevant.  It  contains  nothing  other,  and  nothing  is  to  be 
modified  and  adjusted.  John  3 :  7,  "Ye  must  be  born  again." 
Theme:  "The  Necessity  of  the  New  Birth."  The  exact 
thought.  Compare  John  3 :5,  "Except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  of  spirit."  etc..  or  John  3:6,  "That  which  is  born  of 
the  flesh  is  flesh,"  etc.  The  two  latter  passages  contain  the 
necessity  of  the  new  birth  inferentially ;  at  least  they  do  not 
affirm  it  explicitly.  And  they  contain  many  other  possible 
themes,  e.g..  The  Value  nf  Baptism;  The  Need  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  Regeneration  ;  The  Conditions  of  Participation  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God,  may  come  from  John  3  :5.  The  Law  of 
Heredity ;  The  Possibilities  of  Ancestral  Piety  may  come 
from  John  3  :6.       Relatively  few  texts  furnish  but  a  single 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  125 

theme,  most  texts  are  complex  in  thought  and  we  are  obliged 
to  resort  to  them.  Most  of  our  doctrinal  texts  even  are  used 
inferentially.  The  truth  does  not  come  to  us  in  explicit  doc- 
trinal propositions.  Revelation  reaches  us  indirectly.  A 
categorical  text  is  doubtless  a  valuable  possession.  John  3  7 
would  be  preferable  to  all  other  texts  in  discussing  the  need 
of  the  new  birth.  These  texts  are  valuable  because  they  are 
weighty  and  emphatic  and  have  a  certain  tone  of  authority 
as  conditioned  by  their  categorical  character.  They  have 
the  weight  of  propositions.  Moreover,  in  the  use  of  them, 
there  is  no  possibility  of  subordinating  what  is  primary  to 
what  is  secondary.  Such  subordination  is  often  necessary  in 
the  choice  of  texts  that  contain  several  themes,  e.g..  Matt. 
18:3,  "Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  children," 
etc.  The  necessity  of  conversion  is  often  deduced  from  this 
text.  But  this  is  only  an  incidental  thought  and  it  subordi- 
nates what  is  primary  to  what  is  secondary.  The  child-like 
disposition  as  condition  of  entering  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  the  primary  thought.  Another  and  subordinate  thought  is 
childHkeness  as  the  mark  of  a  converted  man.  The  necessity 
of  conversion  is  a  still  more  subordinate  thought.  These 
explicit  texts,  although  limiting  the  range  of  themes,  do  not 
limit  the  range  of  discussion,  nor  do  they  necessarily  result  in 
stereotyped  treatment.  They  may  be  treated  in  a  variety  of 
ways ;  some  of  them  textually,  as  Robertson  would  do  it, 
more  frequently  topically  as  Bushnell  would  do  it.  They 
may  be  treated  ethically,  evangelistically  and  especially  doc- 
trinally,  and  always  didactically,  whether  doctrinally  or  not. 
It  is  possible  that  the  decline  of  doctrinal  preaching  may 
in  part  account  for  the  relative  non-use  of  this  class  of  texts 
in  our  day.  Most  preachers  incline  to  the  use  of  texts  in  a 
rhetorically  suggestive  way,  as  illustrated,  c.  g.,  by  a  sermon 
of  Bishop  Huntington's  on  the  "Economy  of  Renewal," 
Micah  2:10,  "Arise  ye  and  depart;  for  this  is  not  your  rest." 


126  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

The  sermon  reminds  us  of  Bushnell's  "Spiritual  Dislodg- 
ments."  It  is  a  figurative  or  an  accommodative  use  of  the 
text  that  secures  the  theme.  Judah's  threatened  displace- 
ment from  their  native  seats  as  a  resting  place  suggests  fig- 
uratively the  dislodgments  needed  in  the  renewal  of  character. 
There  may  be  a  certain  gain,  and  there  often  is  in  deducing 
themes  for  didactic  discussion  in  this  indirect  way.  It  may 
result  in  a  more  interesting,  animating,  and  persuasive  type 
of  didactic  preaching.  A  rhetorically  suggestive  text  pre- 
supposes a  rhetorically  suggestive  method  of  handling  it. 
But  it  is  also  possible  that  one  may  be  trapped  into  straining 
his  text,  and  the  rhetorical  manner  of  treatment  may  not 
seem  harmonious  with  the  strictly  didactic  object  of  the  ser- 
mon. Harmony  of  tone  may  be  violated.  In  general  a  defi- 
nitely didactic  discussion  demands  a  definitely  didactic  text, 
if  it  may  be  had.  At  any  rate  the  thing  to  avoid  in  the  rhe- 
torical or  semi-poetic  use  of  a  text  is  a  fancifulness  that  is 
inharmonious  with  the  sobriety  of  a  didactic  discussion. 

2.  The  indirect  or  implicit  correspondence.  Here  the 
text  yields  the  theme  by  some  process  of  indirection,  some 
process  of  deduction,  or  inference  or  oblique  mental  sugges- 
tion. It  would  be  very  difficult  to  classify  such  processes, 
for  they  are  as  numerous  as  the  categories  or  classifications 
of  thought  and  the  methods  of  mental  association.  Many 
of  these  processes  of  deduction  are  based  on  the  principle  of 
local  contiguity  or  on  the  logical  relations  of  thought,  i.  c,  the 
interior  and  necessary  relations  of  thought.  But  most  of 
them  are  based  on  the  principle  of  likeness,  or  consan- 
guinity of  thought  or  the  family  resemblances  of  thought. 
These  principles  yield  vast  varieties  of  method.  Let  us  ex- 
amine and  illustrate  a  few  of  these  possible  indirect  methods. 

(i)  There  is  the  process  of  logical  inference.  The  corre- 
spondence between  the  text  and  theme  is  the  correspondence 
between  cause  and   effect,   or   effect   and   cause,  or  it  may  be 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  127 

some  form  of  contiguity  of  thought,  Uke  antecedent  and  con- 
sequent or  the  reverse,  e.  g.,  Bishop  Brooks'  sermon,  Acts 
8:8,  "And  there  was  great  joy  in  that  city."     Theme:  "The 
Christian  City."     The  declaration  of  the  text  is  simply  that  it 
was  a  joyful  city.     Civic  joy,  or  some  such  theme  as  that, 
would  be  the  generalized  thought,  if  it  were  to  attach  itself 
directly  to  the  text.     That  it  is  a  Christian  city  is  an  infer- 
ence.    It  is  a  legitimate  inference  for  the  context  shows  that 
the  joy  spoken  of  is  Christian  joy,  joy  namely  which  is  evi- 
dence of  the  presence  of  Christianity  there,  or  joy  of  which 
Christianity  is    the   source   or   which   was   occasioned    by    its 
introduction  there.     But  besides  this  inferential  process  there 
is  the  process  of  generalization.     From  the  particular  city  of 
the  text,  the  preacher  passes  to  the  Christian  city  in  general. 
The  relation  of  Christianity  to  this  particular  city  is  wholly 
abandoned  and  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  true  Chris- 
tian city  in  general  are  discussed,  7'/^.,  Faith,  Righteousness, 
Charity.     This  sort  of  text  is  incorrectly  sometimes  called  the 
"motto  text."     But  the  relations  of  thought  here  are  less  ex- 
ternal than  in  the  motto  text.      The  text  furnishes  something 
more  than  a  title  to  the  sermon.     Such  inferential  processes 
ar€  very  varied.     They  have  the  whole  field  of  cause  and 
eflfect,  and  of  antecedence  and  consequence  in  which  to  range. 
Texts  thus  used  yield  substantial  and  at  the  same  time  sug- 
gestive preaching.     They  yield  large  and  legitimate  truths 
that  stand  in  the  light  of  larger  truths  with  which  they  are 
logically  allied.     They  yield   themselves   readily  to  a  great 
variety  of  themes.     In  connection  with  the  above-cited  text 
for  example  we  readily  think  of  the  principles  that  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  a  Christian  civic  life,  of  the  consequences  that 
follow  the  introduction  of  religion  into  civic  life,  of  the  end 
or  object  of  Christianity  as  related  to  the  elevation  of  civic 
life.     These  themes  and  many  others  may  be  deduced,  and  so 
limit  the  discussion.     The  inferential  process  is  so  easy  and 


128  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

natural,  preachers  so  readily  form  the  habit  of  deducing 
themes  in  this  way,  that  it  is  hardly  realized  that  it  is  beingf 
done  at  all.  But  it  is  well  for  the  preacher  at  the  very  outset 
to  form  the  habit  of  tracing  his  processes. 

(2)  There  are  the  processes  that  are  based  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  likeness.  The  methods  of  analogy  are  the  most 
fruitful  methods  of  correspondence,  and  their  use  has  great 
range,  (a)  The  process  of  generalization,  i.  c,  the  process 
by  which  the  specific  truth  contained  in  or  suggested  by  the 
text  is  broadened  out  and  put  in  its  most  general  form  in 
the  theme,  is  based  on  the  principle  of  analogy.  Classifica- 
tion of  special  objects  of  thought  presupposes  likeness.  The 
objects  belong  to  the  same  family.  The  process  of  generali- 
zation also  involves  a  process  of  logical  deduction,  since  we 
pass  from  one  object  or  class  of  objects  to  another  along  the 
line  of  logically-related  thought;  e.g.,  i  Tim.  4:16,  "Take 
heed  to  thyself  and  to  thy  teaching,  continue  in  these  things," 
etc.  The  words  are  addressed  to  a  particular  person,  who 
had  special  functions  in  the  service  of  the  early  church.  The 
injunction  may  be  transferred  to  the  present  day  and  enlarged 
and  made  applicable  to  all  classes  of  persons  in  any  kind  of 
official  or  unofficial  service,  pastors,  evangelists,  Bible  teach- 
ers. The  text  yields  itself  readily  to  textual  treatment. 
Theme:  Conditions  of  successful  Christian  service,  (i)  Per- 
sonal watcii fulness.  (2)  Unflagging  devotion.  (3)  Inspira- 
tion of  the  future  reward. 

(b)  The  process  of  particularization.  The  general  truth 
of  the  text  is  applied  to  a  particular  case,  or  a  particular  phase 
of  the  general  truth  is  selected  for  the  theme,  or  the  truth 
applied  specifically  in  the  text  may  be  transferred  in  the 
theme  to  another  and  a  different  but  analogous,  specific 
object,  e.g.,  Rom.  14:7,  8,  "For  none  of  us  liveth  to  himself," 
etc.  The  text  is  generic.  Tt  proclaims  a  general  truth. 
Living  to  Christ  is  the  general  thought.     In  the  context  Paul 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  129 

applies  the  principle  to  the  question  of  unselfish  abridgment 
of  Christian  liberty.     But  it  may  be  applied  in  almost  any 
direction.     It  readily  adjusts  itself  to  any  phase  of  the  Chris- 
tian life,   to  any  hardship,  trial,  sorrow,  loss,  joy,  success. 
Whatever  it  be,  the  Christian  significance  of  it  all  is  that  in 
it  we  are  to  live  to  Christ.     Whether  for  better  or  for  worse, 
we  are  the  Lord's.     Here  too  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  spe- 
cific application  of  what  is  general  presupposes  a  basis  of 
likeness,  or  analogy,     (c)  Parity  of  principle.     Here  we  have 
the  use  of  analogy  for  the  purpose  of  teaching,  and  yet  it 
may  be  so  used  as  to  be  very  attractive  and  impressive  teach- 
ing.    Dr.  Bushnell's  use  may  illustrate,  e.g.,  John  10:3,  ''He 
calleth  his  own  sheep  by  name."     Theme :  "Personal  love  and 
lead  of  Christ."     A  textual   sermon.     The  analogy   is   sug- 
gested   by    the    text,    and    has    didactic    value.     Luke    9:13, 
"Give  ye  them   to   eat."     Theme:   "Duty  not   measured   by 
ability."     The  obligation  of    the    disciples    to    obey    Christ 
despite  their  lack  of  food  suggests  by  analogy,  or  by  parity 
of  principle,  that  our  obligation  in  general  is  not  measured 
by  our  personal  ability  at  any  particular  time.     Note  that  it 
is  parity  of  principle  that  makes  this  generalization  possible. 
John  20  :8,  "Then  went  in  also  that  other  disciple."     Theme : 
"Unconscious  influence."     The  lead  and  consequent  influence 
of  Peter  upon  John  in  entering  the  tomb  of  the  Lord  on  that 
particular  occasion  is  analogous  to  the  influence  which  men 
in  general  exert  upon  one  another,   analogous,   /.  e.,  in  its 
aspect  of  unconsciousness.     The  solidity  and  attractiveness 
of  Dr.  Bushnell's  preaching  are  in  entire  harmony  with  this 
use  of  texts.     Texts  analogically  used  may  also  be  connected 
with  the  theme  by  way  of  contrast,  and  with  striking  effect, 
e.  g.,  Jer.  48:1 1,  "Moab  hath  been  at  ease  from  his  youth,  and 
he  hath  settled  on  his  lees  and  hath  not  been  emptied  from 
vessel  to  vessel,"  etc.   Theme:  "Spiritual  dislodgments."   The 
untroubled  life  of  Moab,  at  ease  from  his  youth,  like  wine 


I30  THE  WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

settled  on  the  lees,  sug-gests  by  contrast  the  troubled  life  of 
Israel.  This  troubled  life  with  its  results  is  analogous  to  the 
Christian  life  in  general  with  its  results  in  spiritual  dislodg- 
ment.  Note  the  three  processes.  Contrast;  Moab's  ease 
versus  Israel's  discomfort.  Analogy;  Israel's  dislodgments 
and  their  results  correspondent  to  the  Christian's  dislodg- 
ments and  their  results.  Gowralization;  the  case  of  a  single 
people  correspondent  to  that  of  all  Christian  people.  This 
use  of  contrast  is  homiletically  justifiable,  but  it  exacts  skill. 
Hebrew  1 1  :8,  9,  "By  faith  Abraham,  when  he  was  called, 
obeyed  to  go  out,"  etc.  Theme:  "The  Illusiveness  of  Life." 
Abraham  went  forth  in  response  to  a  promise  that  proved 
to  be  illusive.  So  analogically  men  in  general  go  out  into 
life.  Life  promises,  or  seems  to  promise  what  it  does  not 
fulfill.  Hence  the  general  principle,  the  illusiveness  of  life. 
This  is  a  characteristic  of  Robertson's  preaching.  It  deals 
with  general  principles,  and  the  principle  discussed  is  com- 
monly a  generalization  deduced  analogically  from  the  text. 
Texts  thus  used  are  among  the  most  fruitfully  suggestive  and 
useful  texts. 

(d)  Figurative  adaptation  is  another  use  of  analogy. 
There  is  a  difference  between  that  sort  of  analogy,  which,  by 
sometimes  stretching  the  meaning  of  the  term  possibly,  may 
be  called  parity  of  principle,  and  which  may  be  used  didac- 
tically or  for  purposes  of  direct  teaching,  and  that  form  of  it 
which  is  a  figurative  or  metaphorical  likeness,  which  appeals 
chiefly  to  the  imagination  and  is  used  for  the  purpose  of 
suggestive  illustration.  It  is  often  difficult  to  state  or  even 
to  see  the  difference.  It  is  sometimes  felt  rather  than  seen. 
It  is  a  difference  in  degree  rather  than  in  kind.  In  general 
it  may  be  called  the  difference  between  a  prosaic  and  a  semi- 
poetic  use,  although  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  many 
preachers  who  teach  from  a  parity  of  principle  which  they 
find  in  the  analogy  of  their  texts  use  them  in  a  semi-poetic 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  131 

way,  e.  g.,  Bushnell's  sermon  on  "Unconscious  Influence," 
and  Robertson's  "On  the  Illusiveness  of  Life."  This  use  of 
analogy  for  the  purpose  of  teaching  requires  much  sobriety 
of  judgment  lest  it  degenerate  into  frivolous  figurative  re- 
semblances. Analogy  used  rhetorically  and  in  a  semi-poetic 
way  for  the  chief  purpose  of  illustration,  suggestion  and 
impression,  may  have  very  wide  range.  Take  e.  g.,  Matt. 
8 :  27,  "And  the  men  marvelled  saying  what  manner  of  man  is 
this,"  etc.  Theme:  "The  surprises  of  a  complete  conscious 
Redemption."  There  may  be  no  close  inner  connection  of 
thought,  or  of  principle  between  the  surprise  of  the  disciples 
at  their  rescue  from  the  storm  on  Galilee  Lake,  and  the 
assumed  or  imagined  surprise  of  a  redeemed  man  awakening 
to  the  full  consciousness  of  his  redemption  either  in  the  pres- 
ent or  the  future  life.  But  the  one  may  be  made  suggestive 
of  the  other,  not  on  a  basis  of  parity  of  principle,  but  by  a 
certain  figurative  likeness.  It  is  a  metaphorical  adaptation, 
in  which  the  likeness  is  somewhat  remote,  but  it  is  a  true  like- 
ness and  speaks  to  the  imagination,  if  not  to  mental  judgments. 
A  thing  may  be  true  to  the  feelings,  sentiments  and  imagina- 
tion, and  not  true  to  the  critical  judgment.  Again,  John  19:  41, 
"And  in  the  garden  a  new  tomb  wherein  was  never  man  yet 
laid."  This  passage  has  served  a  somewhat  varied  poetic  use 
in  the  Christian  pulpit.  The  same  generic  thought  variously 
modified  has  been  deduced  from  it.  The  general  thought  is 
that  there  are  dark  spots  in  the  brightest  scenes  of  life,  sorrow- 
ful experiences  in  the  midst  of  its  pleasures  and  beneficences. 
The  Grave  in  the  Garden  of  Life.  In  some  such  way,  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  has  used  the  passage.  So,  also,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
George  L.  Walker.  Each  uses  it  in  his  own  distinctive  way, 
with  much  fertility  of  invention,  felicity  of  illustration,  beauty 
of  diction  and  persuasiveness  of  impression.  Christ's  walking 
on  the  Galilee  Lake  has  been  frequently  used  as  figuratively 
suggestive  of  his  spiritual  presence  in  the  tempests  of  life.    It 


132  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

was  thus  used  by  Tholuck.  Whether  an  analogy  amounts  to 
parity  of  principle  or  is  merely  figurative  adaptation  depends 
somewhat  on  the  way  in  which  it  is  used.  It  may  be  made  to 
suggest  likeness  of  principle,  or  it  may  be  used  as  an  appeal 
to  the  imagination,  but  we  generally  recognize  the  difference 
between  an  expository  or  argumentative  use  of  analogy,  one 
which  is  for  the  purpose  of  instruction  or  to  convince,  and  one 
that  has  a  mere  rhetorical  or  illustrative  value  and  that  aims 
chiefly  to  vivify  and  enrich  thought  and  make  it  more  im- 
pressive. The  figurative  or  metaphorical  use  is  endangered 
of  fanci fulness.  It  may  result  in  a  lack  of  virility  and  of 
mental  and  possibly  of  moral  sobriety  in  preaching.  It  is  likely 
to  aft'ect  artificial  resemblances  and  to  degenerate  into  allegory. 
It  demands  sobriety  of  judgment,  but  properly  used,  as  the 
preaching  of  Bishop  Phillips  Brooks  demonstrates,  it  greatly 
enriches  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  This  leads  us  to  consider 
another  and  an  extreme  form  of  analogy. 

(e)  Allegorical  adaptation.  The  extremest  form  of  fig- 
urative adaptation.  It  is  not  easy  sometimes  to  detect  the  dif- 
ference between  them.  Metaphorical  and  allegorical  likenesses 
are  both  forms  of  analogy.  Paul  in  iiis  allegorizing  of  the 
story  of  Isaac  and  Ishmael  assumes  a  certain  correspondence 
between  the  relations  of  the  two  children  and  the  relations  of 
the  two  covenants,  a  correspondence  to  him  so  striking  that 
he  claims  the  right,  a  poetic  right,  doubtless,  to  make  the  one 
the  analogue  of  the  other.  Luther  translates  Paul's  words, 
Gal.  4:24,  "Which  things  are  an  allegory,"  "Die  Worte 
bedeuten  etwas,"  /.  e.,  the  words  have  an  inner  significance 
beyond  the  external  significance  of  the  historic  personages  and 
facts.  This  significance  is  doubtless  an  invention  of  the  He- 
brew imagination,  for  who  but  a  Hebrew  would  have  imagined 
it?  It  is  a  strained  analogy,  and  that  is  allegory.  But  after  all 
there  is  an  element  of  likeness  here.  What  differentiates  the 
allegorical  use  of  analogy  from  other  forms  of  analogy  is  that 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  133 

it  does  not  deal  with  the  prominent  features  of  the  likeness 
suggested  and  those  that  come  easily  and  naturally  from  it,  but 
are  rather  fancifully  created  by  the  imagination.  To  illustrate : 
The  Exodus  in  its  main  features  may  be  properly  used  as  typ- 
ically analogous  to  spiritual  redemption.  Entrance  into  the 
promised  land  legitimately  suggests  entrance  into  the  heavenly 
rest,  but  when  these  historic  experiences  are  minutely  individ- 
ualized and  made  typically  analogous  to  assumed  corresponding 
spiritual  experiences  in  detail,  then  the  process  of  allegorizing 
begins.  Paul,  therefore,  allegorizes  in  making  that  smitten 
rock  the  type  of  Christ.  The  suffering  servant  of  Jehovah  in 
Is.  53  may  legitimately  suggest  the  suffering  Messianic  King. 
It  is  a  genuine  analogy.  But  when  Matthew  finds  minute  in- 
dividual experiences  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  fulfilled 
in  assumed  corresponding  minute  individual  experiences  in 
the  life  of  Christ,  he  allegorizes.  The  parables  have  been 
allegorized  in  this  minute  way.  But  it  is  a  principle  of  modern 
exegesis,  which  homiletics  should  appropriate,  that  the  value 
of  the  analogy  of  the  parable  for  purposes  of  teaching  is  lim- 
ited to  its  main  thought  and  does  not  extend  to  its  subordinate 
thoughts.  Any  metaphor  is  useful  only  for  the  main  thought 
of  the  resemblance  suggested.  When  the  elements  of  resem- 
blance are  atomized  and  traced  out  in  detail,  the  metaphor  is 
allegorized.  Allegorical  likeness  is  of  but  little  value  to  the 
preacher.  What  the  preacher  wants  is  the  inner  and  generic, 
not  the  outer  and  specific  points  of  likeness.  But  after  all 
allegory  may  legitimately  be  used  in  preaching,  if  done  with 
sobriety  and  with  definite  recognition  of  its  rhetorical  use.  In 
this  case  it  does  not  differ  from  any  figurative  or  poetic  use  of 
analogy.  It  is  only  a  difference  in  degree.  Bishop  Brooks  in 
his  sermons  on  "The  Cherubim"  and  on  "The  Sea  of  Glass" 
allegorizes  his  texts.  If  in  Gal.  4:24  or  i  Cor.  10:4  Paul 
undertakes  an  exegesis,  he  is  doubtless  in  error.  But  if  he 
speaks  as  a  homilist,  if  he  uses  these  instances  as  rhetorical 


134  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

adaptations,  uses  them  illustratively,  it  is  a  perfectly  legitimate 
use  and  does  not  differ  from  any  rhetorical  use  of  analogy. 
Exegetically  Philo,  of  course,  went  wild  in  interpreting  Old 
Testament  characters  as  simply  types  of  ethical  qualities,  e.  g., 
Abel  of  devotion,  Noah  of  righteousness,  Abraham  of  holiness 
won  by  striving,  Isaac  of  natural  piety,  and  in  attaching  no  im- 
portance to  their  reality  as  historic  characters.  But  homileti- 
cally  what  better  use  could  be  made  of  them  ?  Only,  of  course, 
if  thus  used  in  biographical  discourses,  the  use  should  be  rec- 
ognized as  rhetorical  adaptation. 

In  fact  at  a  time  when  critical  exegesis  exacts  so  closely 
upon  homiletic  freedom,  preaching  may  lose  something  of  its 
rhetorical  suggestiveness.  Within  the  limits  of  mental  and 
moral  sobriety,  we  may  allegorize  in  the  pulpit.  We  may  get 
a  great  deal  more  out  of  the  Bible,  as  we  may  out  of  Shakes- 
peare's works  or  any  work  of  poetic  productiveness,  than  ever 
went  into  it.  If  preaching  were  to  anchor  rigidly  to  modern 
exegesis  it  would  lose  much  of  its  quickening  power. 

There  is  a  species  of  correspondence  that  lies  beyond  the 
realm  of  allegory,  but  which  allegorizing  preachers  have  often 
used,  viz.,  verbal  correspondence.  It  is  a  mere  verbal  sug- 
gestion without  any  remotest  correspondence  of  thought.  Such 
use  has  generally  marked  a  degeneracy  of  the  pulpit.  Preachers 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  have  sometimes  used  their 
texts  as  puns.  Claude  seems  to  have  had  preachers  of  this 
sort  in  mind  when  he  writes,*  "The  preacher  must  be  wise, 
sober,  and  chaste.  I  say  wise  in  opposition  to  those  im- 
pertinent people,  who  utter  jests,  comical  comparisons,  quirks 
and  extravagances,  and  such  are  a  good  part  of  the  preachers 
of  the  church  of  Rome."  Not  only  a  frivolous  but  a  lascivious 
use  of  Scripture  texts  was  possible.  The  Puritan  preachers 
of  England  were  not  above  this  frivolity.    Mr.  Spurgeon  never 


♦Composition  of  a  StTinoii.     Chai).   II,  page  62. 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  135 

used  his  text  as  a  pun,  but  in  his  early  years  he  used  the  Latin 
word  for  Jesus  in  the  Hght  of  a  pun,  and  made  it  mean  "1  ease 
you."  Roland  Hill  sometimes  allowed  his  wit  to  get  the  better 
of  him  in  his  use  of  Scripture.  Dean  Swift's  moral  shallow- 
ness and  insobriety  are  apparent  in  that  case  which  has  become 
classic  for  frivolous  pulpit  procedure,  in  which  he  addressed  a 
congregation  of  tailors  from  the  text  "A  remnant  shall  be 
saved."  It  would  be  impossible  in  our  day  for  any  educated 
preacher  to  do  this,  despite  the  freedom  with  which  we  use  the 
Scriptures. 

II.  Correspondence  of  Tone.  By  this  is  meant  harmony  of 
feeling,  sentiment,  spirit,  taste,  literary  quality,  between  text 
and  sermon.  Correspondence  of  thought  is  possible  without 
this  correspondence  of  sentiment.  The  character  and  object 
of  the  sermon  exact  upon  the  tone  of  the  text  that  is  chosen, 
and  reversely,  the  tone  of  the  text  conditions  the  tone  of  the 
sermon.  Lack  of  harmony  here  must  result  in  an  impression 
of  ineptitude,  which  no  amount  of  rhetorical  skill  would  be 
able  to  overcome.  Harmony  of  tone  in  the  art  of  preaching 
is  no  less  important  than  in  the  art  of  music.  The  ground- 
tone  of  the  text  demands  an  echo  in  the  ground-tone  of  the 
sermon,  and  reversely.  There  are  two  sorts  of  tone  corre- 
spondence between  the  text  and  the  sermon  which  should  be 
considered,  the  literary  or  rhetorical  and  the  ethical. 

I.  It  is  a  generally-accepted  rule  that  a  didactic  aim  and  a 
prosaic  quality  in  the  material  of  a  sermon  demand  a  literary 
or  rhetorital  quality  in  the  text  that  corresponds.  The  method 
of  handling  the  sermon  may  modify  the  rule.  For  a  rhetorically 
suggestive  method  of  accomplishing  the  didactic  result  may 
admit  of  the  choice  of  a  rhetorically  suggestive  text.  Such  a 
text  should  certainly  be  treated  in  a  way  corresponding  to  its 
quality.  He,  however,  should  be  a  skillful  rhetorician  who 
would  attempt  it.  But  a  prosaic  discussion,  a  discussion  that 
aims  primarily  at  convincing  the  understanding  certainly  calls 


136  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

for  a  corresponding  text.  If  the  object  of  the  sermon  be 
ethical,  an  ethical  quality  in  the  text  that  corresponds  is  needed. 
An  emotional  text  commits  the  preacher  to  the  effort  to  excite 
an  emotion  corresponding  in  the  congregation.  A  poetical  text 
presupposes  an  appeal  to  the  imagination  in  the  use  of  a  type 
of  diction  that  is  harmonious.  The  writer  once  heard  a  ser- 
mon from  Is.  63:  I.  "Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom," 
etc.  It  was  a  somewhat  dull  and  distinctly  prosaic  and  com- 
monplace discussi«)n  of  sin.  The  preacher  had  not  caught  the 
tone  of  his  text.  Coiitrasi  in  this  regard  the  use  of  the  text 
by  Bishop  Brooks  in  the  sermon  entitled,  "The  Conqueror 
from  lulom."  The  inspiration  of  the  text  is  apparent  in  the 
elevated  tone  of  the  entire  sermon,  ihe  dullest  hearer  would 
not  fail  to  note  the  harmony  of  tone.  Xo  preacher  who  knew 
his  task,  or  even  a  man  of  ordinary  sentiment  and  sensibility, 
would  select  Matt.  1 1 :28.  29,  "Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor," 
etc.,  as  the  basis  of  a  prosaic  discussion  of  salvation  as  in- 
volved in  subjection  to  Christ's  yoke,  although  the  substance 
of  that  thought  may  be  found  in  the  text.  John  17:20,  21, 
"Neither  for  these  only  do  I  pray,''  etc.,  is  a  very  difficult  text 
for  a  sermon  on  the  unity  of  the  Christian  church,  as  the 
writer  has  found  by  testing  it.  It  is  not  easy  to  preserve  the 
lone  of  the  utterance.  It  is  a  part  of  our  Lord's  high-priestly 
prayer.  The  sermon  sliouUl  never  forget  this,  or  at  least 
should  never  dishonor  its  sanctity  of  tone.  In  choosing  an 
elevated  text,  one  highly  emotional  or  poetic  or  rhetorically 
suggestive  in  its  character,  one  should  ne\er  flat  out  into  com- 
monplace. It  is  better  to  enrich  a  prosaic  text  than  to  impov- 
erish a  poetic  text  in  one's  handling  of  it.  Emotional  texts  or 
texts  of  sentiment  that  have  become  identified  with  cherished 
Christian  experiences  are  specially  exacting  upon  harmony  of 
tone.  Texts,  for  example,  that  relate  to  the  sufferings  of 
Christ,  or  the  joys  of  the  heavenly  world.  The  problem  of  se- 
curing harmony  of  tone  is  not   merely  an  aesthetic  problem, 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  137 

but  is  as  well  the  ethical  problem  of  conserving  the  exception- 
ally elevated  and  impressive  character  and  influence  of  such 
texts.  German  preachers,  who.  in  general,  speak  more  largely 
to  the  feelings,  afifections  and  sentiments,  than  American  or 
English  preachers,  recognize  this  principle  of  harmony  ex- 
ceptionally well.  They  choose  their  texts  with  excellent  judg- 
ment and  taste,  and  treat  them  with  propriety  after  they  have 
chosen  them.  This  principle  of  harmony  of  tone  has,  as  Prof. 
Phelps  has  pointed  out.  served  to  fix  for  us  a  class  of  texts 
that  appeal  to  our  highest  emotions  and  sentiments  and  are 
used  largely  in  evangelistic  preaching.  It  is  tone  as  well  as 
thought  that  has  secured  for  us  these  texts  that  speak  so  per- 
suasively to  the  heart  and  will.  Evangelistic  preachers  of  the 
higher  class  have  always  selected  their  texts  with  reference 
to  their  fitness  to  further  the  aim  of  evangelistic  impression. 
Theological  changes  and  particularly  changes  in  pulpit  use  of 
the  Bible,  have  brought  out  a  new  crop  of  evangelistic  texts. 
But  the  old  texts  will  still  demonstrate  their  power  and  will 
still  be. available  for  varied  use. 

Timeliness  is  involved  in  part  in  this  question  of  corre- 
spondence of  tone.  The  object  of  the  sermon,  as  conditioned 
by  the  occasion,  exacts  upon  the  time-note  of  the  text  The 
occasional  preacTier  is  obliged  to  exercise  skill  in  his  choice  of 
timely  texts.  The  old  English  preachers.  Tillotson.  Taylor  and 
South,  and  the  New  England  Puritan  preachers  exhibited  this 
skill  in  the  choice  of  texts  for  their  occasional  sermons 

2.  Ethical  correspondence.  We  touch  here  more  specifi- 
cally the  ethics  of  homiletic  proprietv.  The  use  of  the  text  is  a 
moral  question,  as  well  as  one  of  good  taste.  The  text  should 
be  ethically  worthy  of  the  preacher's  calling,  of  the  object  of 
his  preaching,  of  the  occasion,  of  the  audience  and  of  the 
sanctities  of  public  worship.  Texts  in  themselves  unobjection- 
able are  often  made  objectionable  by  their  use.  The  following 
classes  of  texts  are    morally    improper.     They  are  such    as 


138  THE  WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

Claude  reprehends  in  the  preaching  of  the  Roman  CathoHc 
church  of  his  day,  and  against  whose  use  he  warns  the  Protes- 
tant churches  of  France. 

Odd  texts  are  morally  objectionable.  A  text  in  itself  simple 
and  clear  may  be  made  fantastic  by  twisting  it  from  its  historic 
sense  and  use.  A  manly  man,  with  a  manly  object,  will  have 
a  manly  text,  and  such  a  man  will  have  a  manly  sermon.  It 
was  in  part  the  homiletic  sin  of  the  old  allegorizers  that  they 
twisted  their  texts  till  they  become  fantastic.  It  reached  its 
lowest  point  of  degradation  in  the  preaching  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  church  prior  to  the  Reformation  and  had  not  van- 
ished in  the  post-Reformation  period.  But  this  sort  of  thing 
has  almost  wholly  disappeared  from  the  Christian  pulpit.  Oc- 
casionally a  pulpit  mountebank  indulges  in  it,  but  it  is  gen- 
erally regarded  as  vulgar.  It  marks  a  great  advance  in  the 
ethical  as  well  as  sesthetic  tone  of  the  pulpit  that  this  is  no 
longer  possible.  A  better  conception  of  the  Bible  secures  a 
more  serious  estimate  of  it  as  a  text  book.  Wit  and  humor 
are  by  no  means  inappropriate  in  the  pulpit.  Many  great 
preachers  have  made  use  of  them.  But  there  is  a  great  differ- 
ence between  flashes  of  wit  such  as  Luther  sometimes  indulged 
in.  and  which  were  not  uncommon  and  sometimes  seriously 
objectionable  in  the  preaching  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  and  a 
deliberate,  sensational  attempt  to  commit  a  whole  sermon  to 
frivolity  by  the  use  of  a  fantastic  text,  or  by  the  fantastic  use 
of  an  honest  text.  An  intelligent  estimate  of  the  Bible  tends 
to  correct  and  regulate  the  moral  judgments  in  the  use  of  wit 
and  humor  in  the  pulpit. 

Censorious  texts  arc  ethically  objectionable.  The  classical 
illustration  and  admonitory  example  is  that  of  the  man,  who, 
on  leaving  his  church,  flung  as  a  Parthian  arrow  Ps.  120:5, 
"Woe  is  me  that  I  sojourn  in  Meshech.  that  I  dwell  among 
the  tents  of  Kcdar."  Such  a  man  is  guilty  of  a  grave  moral 
ofifense.     Nothing  can  justify  a  Christian  minister  in  the  in- 


HOMILETIC    CORRESPONDENCES  139 

dulgence  of  petty  spite.  It  is  doubly  offensive  to  draught  the 
Scriptures  into  alliance  with  it.  There  are  no  Scriptures  avail- 
able for  such  use,  except  the  imprecations  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  such  lise  of  them  would  be  an  anachronism  and  a 
violation  of  the  first  principles  of  Christian  morality. 

Puzzling  texts  are  also  morally  objectionable.  They  are 
generally  the  special  property  of  preachers  who  affect  subjects 
of  merely  speculative  interest  and  that  are  morally  unfruitful, 
or  of  those  who  affect  rhetorical  sensation.  The  allegorizing 
habit  has  allied  itself  with  the  use  of  this  class  of  texts.  It 
has  always  marked  a  degeneracy  in  the  moral  and  spiritual, 
and  I  may  add,  the  aesthetic  tone  of  preaching.  The  preacher 
who  in  our  day  would  affect  the  puzzling  process  in  his  use  of 
texts  would  be  regarded  as  a  homiletic  crank. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CONSIDERATIONS  REGULATIVE  FOR  THE  CHOICE 
OF  SUBJECTS 

Most  preachers  select  their  own  texts  and  themes.  In 
Churches  that  follow  the  course  of  the  Christian  year,  the  gen- 
eral subjects  to  be  presented  have  been  prescribed  by  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities.  They  are  fixed  by  the  different 
periods  into  which  the  church  year  is  divided,  and  the  preacher 
is  limited  by  them.  There  are  conceivable  disadvantages  in 
this.  It  seems  to  be  a  severe  tax  upon  the  preacher's  ingenuity 
and  suggests  a  premium  upon  repetition  and  commonplace.  For 
the  indolent  and  unproductive  preacher  it  seems  to  promise  a 
safe  retreat,  while  it  also  seems  to  pledge  superficiality  and  un- 
fruitfulness.  But  in  general  it  is  a  seeming  rather  than  a  real 
difficulty.  It  may  be  that  the  preaching  of  churches  thus  lim- 
ited lacks  somewhat  the  spontaneity,  the  independence,  and 
fruitfulness  of  the  preaching  of  those  churches  that  are  free 
of  such  limitations.  Rut  observation  indicates  that  there  is  no 
real  restriction  here  for  the  better  class  of  preachers.  And  the 
necessity  of  keeping  before  the  mind  of  the  people  the  great 
facts  and  truths  of  historic  Christianity  is  a  distinct  gain.  The 
gain  is  the  greater  that  only  subjects  and  not  specific  themes 
and  texts  are  thus  prescribed.  But  in  the  larger  number  of 
Protestant  churches  neither  subjects  nor  texts  are  prescribed. 
The  preacher  in  such  churches  needs,  therefore,  an  intelligent 
basis  of  selection.  He  needs  to  take  into  account  the  complex 
demands  of  his  vocation.  There  seems  to  be  no  good  reason 
why  the  individual  sermon  should  be  wholly  isolated  from  sub- 
jects chosen  for  presentation  during  a  considerable  period  of 


THE  CHOICE   OF   SUBJECTS  141 

time.  Isolation  is,  of  course,  necessary  to  a  certain  extent.  The 
preacher  must  adjust  himself  to  the  broken,  fragmentary  lives 
of  his  people,  whose  needs  he  is  called  to  meet.  But  in  general 
individual  selection  may  well  be  conditioned  by  one's  larger 
plans  for  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  A  habit  of  storing  themes 
and  texts  is  necessary  for  any  successful  preacher.  Out  of 
such  a  treasury  one  may  readily  make  out  a  list  of  subjects, 
and  of  texts,  at  least  in  a  provisional  way.  for  a  considerable 
period  of  time,  six  months  perhaps,  three  months  at  least.  To 
such  subjects,  especially  in  the  earlier  period  of  one's  ministry, 
it  may  be  possible  fairly  well  to  adhere.  Intelligent  hearers 
often  criticize  the  lack  of  unity  of  impression  in  the  work  of 
the  pulpit,  the  lack  of  continuity  in  the  subjects  chosen  and  the 
failure  of  an  intelligent  basis  of  selection  so  often  apparent  in 
the  preacher's  work.  The  question,  "What  shall  I  preach?" 
should  never  be  left  to  the  answer  of  caprice,  or  of  transient 
impulse.  There  are  rational  considerations  regulative  for 
choice.  What  demands  then  should  be  taken  into  account  in 
answering  this  question  in  a  broad  and  intelligent  manner? 
The  following  are  among  the  claims  to  be  met  in  the  work  of 
selection. 

I.  The  needs  of  the  congregation  always  have  the  first  claim 
upon  the  preacher.  Timehness  in  preaching  is  necessary  to  gen- 
eral effectiveness,  especially  necessary  to  edification.  A  word 
spoken  in  season  has  a  double  power.  To  its  own  intrinsic 
weight  is  added  the  weight  that  comes  from  the  occasion  or 
from  the  condition  of  the  congregation  or  even  a  portion  of  it. 
Such  timeliness  presupposes  a  reference  to  the  real  needs  of 
the  congregation.  The  man  who  has  an  intelligent  and  definite 
purpose  to  meet  these  wants  in  his  preaching  will  not  fail  to 
be  timely.  What  interests  the  congregation  is  not  an  unimpor- 
tant consideration,  for  their  wishes  are  often  an  index  of  their 
needs.  The  desirable  and  the  profitable  may  be  united,  and  al- 
ways will  be  united  when  it  is  evident  that  what  people  desire 


142  THE  WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

expresses  a  real  want  and  will  therefore  become  tributary  to 
real  profit.  It  is  true  that  people  are  not  always  interested  in 
what  is  best  for  them.  And  a  responsible  preacher  will  never 
permit  a  congregation  to  settle  for  him  unconditionally  the 
question  of  their  real  and  permanent  needs.  The  preacher's 
estimate  of  what  is  profitable  shonld.  therefore,  have  preced- 
ence. Experience  and  observation  will  settle  the  balance  be- 
tween what  interests  and  what  profits.  No  general  rule  will 
settle  it.  It  may  be  questioned,  however,  whether  preachers 
in  general  sufficiently  consider  what  people  want  to  hear,  or 
what  they  really  wish,  although  they  may  not  be  more  than 
half  conscious  of  it.  The  habit  of  soliciting  suggestions  from 
the  congregation  is  a  good  one.  Very  urgent  wants  have 
often  been  recognized  and  met  in  this  way.  Manv  a  preacher 
has  to  acknowledge  that  he  is  indebted  to  his  parishioners  for 
some  of  his  best  texts  and  most  important  subjects  and 
they  may  often  thank  themselves  for  some  of  his  best 
sermons. 

But,  of  course,  what  clearly  profits  independently  of  all  ca- 
pricious desire,  is,  as  already  suggested,  the  main  consideration. 
The  chief  reason  for  interesting  people  is  that  their  real  needs 
may  be  the  more  effectively  met.  the  needs  even  of  a  limited 
section  of  the  congregation,  sometimes  perhaps  even  of  a  single 
person.  This  is  pastoral  preaching.  The  Pastoral  Epistles  lay 
accent  upon  what  "profits  the  hearer."  "Striving  about  words 
to  no  profit"  is  sharply  rebuked.  The  things  to  be  constantly 
affirmed  are  "the  things  that  are  good  and  profitable."  It  is  a 
very  easy  thing  for  a  man  to  become  a  pulpit  crank  by  selfish 
devotion  to  a  hobby  and  a  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  congre- 
gation and  of  devotion  to  their  moral  welfare.  The  building  of 
religious  character  and  the  bettering  of  the  religious  life  is  the 
inclusive  interest.  Rut  many  things  arc  involved  in  this.  It 
must  start  in  the  valley  of  decision  where  men  choose  Christ 
as  the  master  of  life.  Ordinary  preaching  should  enter  this  field. 


THE  CHOICE  OF  SUBJECTS  143 

But  there  are  times  when  concentration  is  demanded.  One  will 
need  to  summon  into  use  the  arousing,  converting,  saving  truths 
of  Christianity.  There  are  such  truths  and  the  preacher  must 
find  out  what  they  are.  But  a  large  part  of  the  preaching  that 
profits  will  have  for  its  aim  the  growth  and  enlargement  of  the 
Christian  life.  Such  preaching  will  deal  with  those  truths  of 
grace  that  produce  growth  in  Christian  character.  It  is  the 
effective  presentation  of  Christ  as  the  source  and  the  pattern  of 
life  that  develops  Christian  character. 

But  Christ  is  also  the  inspiration  and  the  aim  of  life.  To 
incite  men,  therefore,  to  the  choice  of  the  highest  ideals  of 
life,  to  quicken  them  into  Christian  activity,  to  urge  them  to  the 
cultivation  of  those  productive  virtues  of  the  Christian  life  on 
which  the  advancement  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  depends,  this 
also  is  involved. 

There  will  be  times  also  when  the  congregation  as  a  whole  or 
in  part  will  need  the  cheer  and  comfort  of  the  Gospel  of 
alleviation.  The  burdened  and  the  careworn  are  the  larger 
number.  And  the  preacher  who  would  profit  must  know  his 
Scriptures  as  a  storehouse  of  comforting  truths  and  facts.  No 
opportunity  to  say  the  word  of  cheer  should  ever  be  lost.  He 
who  applies  sympathetically  and  skillfully  the  cheering  and 
comforting  truths  of  the  Gospel  to  those  who  are  oppressed  by 
the  burdens  of  life  will  win  an  ascendency  which  were  other- 
wise impossible.  If  done  in  manly  fashion,  a  minister  will  not 
fail  to  make  himself  necessary  to  his  people.  His  life  will  be- 
come identified  with  their  lives  and  he  never  can  become  an 
object  of  indifference  to  them.  But  the  end  of  comfort  is  en- 
richment of  character.  The  end  of  parenetic  truth  is  that  it 
should  become  edifying  truth.  Place  should  always  be  left  in 
one's  selection  of  subjects  for  the  providences  of  the  people's 
lives.  Here  then  are  four  classes  of  need,  decision,  edification, 
inspiration,  comfort,  and  there  are  four  types  of  truth  corre- 
spondingly available  for  the  preacher;  evangelistic,  didactic, 


144  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

ethical,  parenetic.  They  overlap.  It  were  well,  if  all  were  to 
appear  in  ordinary  preaching.  But  there  will  be  times  when 
each  will  need  to  receive  special  emphasis. 

II.  Corresponding  to  the  needs  of  the  congregation,  are  the 
claims  of  Christian  truth.  For  what  meets  the  needs  of  the 
people  should  meet  the  claims  of  truth.  But  it  is  an  object  that 
demands  specific  consideration.  Christianity  should  be  inter- 
preted to  men  with  an  approximation  to  completeness.  A  state- 
ment of  the  contents  of  Christianity  and  of  their  demands  upon 
Christian  preaching  would  readily  furnish  suggestions  as  to  the 
scope  of  the  preacher's  presentation. 

Themes  that  cover  the  chief  historic  facts  of  Christianity 
have  the  first  place.  The  facts  are  back  of  the  truths.  The 
truths  cannot  be  worthily  apprehended  apart  from  the  facts. 
Here  is  the  value  to  the  preacher  of  the  Christian  year.  It 
brings  these  facts  to  his  attention  and  summons  him  to  make 
use  of  them.  The  life  of  the  Church  is  dependent  upon  them. 
Advent  season,  Passion  week.  Easter.  Whitsuntide,  All  Saints' 
Day,  should  never  fail  of  recognition  in  any  Christian  com- 
munion or  in  any  Christian  pulpit. 

Themes  inclusive  of  the  most  important  doctrines  of  Chris- 
tianity, especially  the  doctrines  of  grace,  will  also  find  place  in 
the  pulpit  whose  aim  is  the  highest  profit  of  the  hearer.  There 
are  the  great  central  groups  within  which  the  doctrines  of  grace 
are  found.  They  are  but  few,  and  may  be  grouped  as  Bib- 
liology. Theology.  Anthropology.  Christology,  Soteriology. 
Pneumatology,  Ecclesiology  and  Eschatology.  Within  these 
limits  lies  the  entire  content  of  the  Gospel  message.  Of 
special  importance  is  the  recognition  of  vital  truths  or  facts 
that  have  been  neglected  or  obscured  because  they  have  been 
underestimated  and  undervalued,  either  generally  in  the 
churches  or  in  the  church  or  community  where  providence  has 
placed  one.  One  might  still  further  add,  as  an  important  con- 
sideration, the    selection  of  themes    whose    material  will    be 


THE  CHOICE   OF  SUBJECTS  145 

adapted  to  different  types  of  sermons,  e.g.,  expository,  textual, 
topical,  historical,  biographical,  doctrinal,  ethical,  evangelistic, 
prophetic,  parenetic.  These  suggestions,  of  course,  only  indicate 
the  general  scope  of  our  enquiry.  They  certainly  cannot  be 
crowded  into  the  limits  of  the  work  of  a  single  year.  They  are 
considerations  that  are  properly  regulative  of  one's  entire 
ministry. 

HI.  But  the  needs  of  the  preacher  himself  are  not  an  insig- 
nificant consideration.  For  the  personal  factor  conditions  ef- 
fectiveness. It  is  assumed,  of  course,  that  there  will  be  no 
caprice  or  self-indulgence  in  selecting  themes.  Only  with  this 
proviso  is  it  worth  while  to  consider  it.  But  the  working  re- 
lation of  the  truth  to  one's  own  personality  is  of  vast  impor- 
tance in  the  whole  work  of  preaching. 

Personal  interest  perhaps  comes  first.  Every  thoughtful, 
studious  preacher  will  have  his  favorite  themes.  He  will  be 
more  thoroughly  interested  in  them  than  in  others  equally  im- 
portant, perhaps,  or  possibly  even  more  .important.  That  one 
can  handle  most  effectively  what  interests  him  most  is  a  good 
reason  why  one  should  prefer  and  should  choose  such  themes 
rather  than  those  even  that  might  be  regarded  by  many  as  more 
important.  One  is  strongly  moved  by  that  only  which  inter- 
ests him  strongly,  and  one  moves  others  only  as  one  is  himself 
moved.  It  is  true  that  proportion  and  perspective  may  be 
easily  disregarded.  One  may  make  a  hobby  of  his  subjects, 
and  wrong  his  congregation  by  withholding  subjects  of  more 
vital  importance.  But  for  the  preacher  whose  homiletic 
mterests  are  Christian,  this  basis  of  choice  is  legitimate  as  it 
is  important. 

Personal  aptitudes  are  another  consideration.  One  may  well 
discuss  what  he  is  best  fitted  to  discuss.  One's  intellectual, 
emotional,  ethical,  aesthetic  tendencies  and  habits  and  training 
condition  one's  choice  of  themes.  One  man  naturally  affects 
didactic  themes,  because  the  teaching  gift  is  strong  in  him,  an- 


146  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

other  ethical  themes  and  aims,  another  is  at  home  in  the  sphere 
of  emotion  and  sentiment.  An  extreme  of  one's  speciality  is,  of 
course,  objectionable,  but  one  is  strongest  in  his  own  realm, 
and  in  the  long  run  one's  own  speciality  is  pretty  sure  to  domi- 
nate one.  What  one  naturally  affects  will  surely  influence  one's 
choice. 

Personal  familiarity  is  another  consideration.  A  subject  well 
mastered  will  be  the  more  effectively  handled.  Every  intelli- 
gent preacher  may  be  assumed  to  have  such  themes  in  hand, 
themes  of  living,  timely  interest.  Biblical,  theological,  ethical, 
social,  whatever  they  may  be.  With  such  he  is  at  home.  The 
importance  of  investigating  those  subjects  that  are  of  primary 
importance  is  evident  here.  Those  of  secondary  importance, 
in  which  people  are  but  little  interested  and  which  are  of  but 
little  practical  value,  should  certainly  be  avoided.  A  preacher 
cannot  afford  to  spend  time  in  storing  useless  knowledge.  One 
who  does  this  will  be  an  unfruitful  preacher  and  will  win  the 
reputation  perhaps  of  a  pulpit  crank.  Things  that  do  not  profit 
should  have  the  "go  by."  From  the  very  outset  of  one's  min- 
istry themes  of  primal  importance  to  the  Christian  life  should 
be  chosen  for  investigation.  He  is  the  best  preacher  whose 
personal  tastes  and  aptitudes  harmonize  with  the  interests  of 
the  congregation  and  with  the  claims  of  Christian  truth.  One 
is  always  safe  in  choosing  the  chief  themes  of  Christianity  and 
in  making  them  centres  about  which  one's  thought  and  study 
may  rally. 

Preaching  regulated  as  to  the  choice  of  subjects  by  the  above 
considerations  will  be  secured  against  caprice.  It  will  be  intel- 
ligent, discriminating,  proportionate  preaching.  The  ground  is 
covered.  Experience  and  good  judgment  will  fix  the  balance 
between  dift'erent  demands.  Mow  to  meet  these  demands  is  now 
a  practical  question  more  easily  answered.  Having  in  hand  the 
needs  to  be  met,  knowing  one's  people,  and  their  necessities, 
knowing  one's  self,    respecting  the  truth  of  which    one  is  a 


THE   CHOICE   OF  SUBJECTS  147 

steward,  one  will  the  more  easily  determine  what  to  preach  and 
m  a  reasonable,  practical  way. 

Thus  will  be  secured,  moreover,  deliberation  in  the  choice 
of  the  particular  theme  for  the  particular  sermon.    One  is  not 
shut  up  to  one  thing.     Selection  is  possible  from  what  seems 
most  pertinent  at  the  time.     Present  necessity  or  present  in- 
clmation  will,  indeed,  sometimes  dominate  one.    One  must  do 
simply  what  he  can,  or  what  he  is  inwardly  self-impelled  to  do 
irrespective  of  all  other  considerations.  But  the  less  of  this  the 
better.    Here  one  has  a  broad  and  reliable  basis  for  his  work 
Out  of  this  the  mdividual  sermon  will  the  more  readily  come 
and  with  intelligent  deliberation.    A  preacher  who  works  from 
a  basis  so  broad  will  always  have  something  to  say     It  is  the 
hand  to  mouth"  preacher  that  will  be  left  without  anything  to 
say.    And  such  a  preacher  may  find  himself  degenerating  into 
the  performance  of  those  rhetorical  antics  that  are  the  agonies 
of  mental  and  moral  poverty  or  into  a  commonplace  stupidity 
equally  impoverished  of  mental,  ethical,  spiritual  or  genuinely 
emotional  quality.  ^    «""iciy 

Freedom  and  fitness  of  invention  too  will  result,  i.  e  in  the 
discovery  choice  and  development  of  the  thought-material  of 
the  individual  sermon.  Such  production  must  always  be  con- 
ditioned by  a  good  general  conception  of  the  scope  of  preaching 
and  good  plans  for  the  realization  of  such  conception.  Surely 
he  preacher  who  shapes  the  general  plan  of  his  preaching  with 
re  erence  to  the  right  sort  of  results,  will  be  pretty  sure  to  keep 

e  n  r^F  'M    ^''''"  '^  ^'^  development  of  the  individual 
ZZ     ,  '^'^"^^''''^^  '^  not  merely  what  does  this  text, 

theme,  plan  and  development  demand,  but  what  do  Christian 
mteres ts  demand,  what  the  welfare  of  men,  what  is  demand  d 
by  the  truth,  what  of  me  as  a  Christian  preacher,  not  only  here 
and  now.  but  all  through  and  always. 


Ill 

SECTION  THIRD 
TYPES  OF  HOMILETIC  PRODUCT 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  EXPOSITORY  TYPE 

Sermons  may  be  classified  in  a  variety  of  ways.  A  very 
comprehensive  classification  would  give  us  the  didactic  and  the 
practical  types  of  sermon,  or  the  argumentative  and  the  per- 
suasive, or  the  pastoral  and  the  occasional.  But  this  is  too 
general  for  purposes  of  close  analysis.  The  method  of  develop- 
ment would  be  another  basis  for  classification  and  this  would 
give  us  the  textual  and  topical  types.  But  the  method  of  de- 
velopment belongs  properly  to  formal  homiletics.  The  struc- 
ture of  the  sermon  can  not  be  discussed  without  considering  the 
form  it  takes.  The  most  external  classification  would  be  based 
upon  the  method  of  delivery  and  this  would  lead  us  into  a 
discussion  of  the  manuscript,  extemporaneous  and  memoriter 
types  of  preaching.  This  basis  we  cannot  ignore.  Our  dis- 
cussion will,  therefore,  include  these  three  types.  But  the  mo3t 
complete  and  satisfactory  classification  will  centre  in  the  con- 
tent and  object  of  the  sermon.  Following  this  method  of 
classification,  we  first  find  the  sermon  whose  content  is  Biblical 
material  and  whose  object  is  exposition  and  practical  applica- 
tion. We  find  secondly  the  sermon  that  contains  the  substance 
of  some  formulated  doctrine  and  whose  aim  is  the  interpreta- 
tion or  the  defense  and  enforcement  of  some  teaching  of  church 
theology.  Thirdly,  we  have  the  sermon  that  relates  to  moral 
duties  and  virtues  and  whose  object  is  moral  inculcation  in  the 
interest  of  a  practical  realization  of  the  claims  of  Christianity. 
And  then  fourthly  we  come  to  the  sermon  that  concerns  itself 
specifically  with  the  claims  and  promises  of  the  Gospel  of  re- 
demption,  and   whose   object  is   to   persuade   men   to   their 


152  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

acceptance.  Scriptural  truth,  dogmatic  truth,  ethical  truth, 
evangelistic  truth  ;  Biblical  exposition,  systematic  indoctrina- 
tion, ethical  inculcation,  evangelistic  conquest.  Many  sub-di- 
visions under  each  class  are  possible.  Moreover  any  sermon, 
whatever  its  class,  may  include  elements  that  belong  to  all 
these  classes.  The  truth  may  be  Biblically  interpreted,  argu- 
mentatively  discussed,  ethically  enforced  and  evangelistically 
applied,  all  in  the  same  sermon.  Perhaps  on  the  whole  that 
is  the  best  kind  of  sermon  for  ordinary  pastoral  use  that  com- 
bines in  some  measure  elements  that  belong  to  all  these  types. 
It  is  however  the  prevailing  quality  of  content  and  the  leading 
object  that  determine  the  classification.  According  to  the  two 
methods  of  classification,  then,  we  have  before  us  seven  types 
of  homiletic  product.     We  begin  with  the  expository  type. 

I.  The  Conception  of  Expository  Preaching 
It  is  the  interpretation,  illustration  and  practical  application, 
in  appropriate  order  and  form,  of  a  portion  of  Scripture.  As 
to  its  basis,  the  expository  sermon  rests  upon  a  larger  portion 
of  Scripture  as  its  text,  than  any  other  type  of  sermon.  In  this 
it  differs  from  textual  preaching.  The  older  preachers  and 
writers  on  homiletics  are  inclined  to  identify  the  textual  and 
expository  methods,  treating  single  passages  expositorily. 
Claude  would  call  any  method  of  drawing  out  the  related 
thoughts  of  a  single  passage  and  expanding  them,  expository, 
and  what  we  in  our  day  would  call  a  topical  treatment,  he 
would  call  expository.  But  properly  the  textual  method  in- 
terprets the  content  of  but  one  or  two  passages,  while  the 
expository  method  deals  with  a  larger  amount  of  Scripture. 
In  its  content  of  development  it  is,  of  course,  immediately 
Scriptural.  It  ranges  less  widely  for  its  material  all  through 
than  any  other  type  of  sermon.  The  body  of  thought  comes 
directly  from  the  Scriptures.  Only  what  illustrates  it  comes 
from  without. 


THE   EXPOSITORY   TYPE  153 

As  to  its  method,  it  is  primarily  explanatory.  It  may  be 
much  else,  but  whatever  the  nature  of  the  discussion  and  what- 
ever practical  use  may  be  made  of  the  truth,  it  is  all  based 
immediately  upon  the  exposition.  As  to  its  structure  the  ex- 
pository discourse  has,  or  may  have,  a  larger  measure  of  free- 
dom than  any  other  type  of  sermon.  It  is  less  controlled  by 
logical  and  rhetorical  considerations.  The  expository  sermon 
proper  has  indeed  the  normal  structural  form,  although  even 
this  has  large  freedom.  But  other  forms  are  not  at  all  answer- 
able to  the  demands  of  structural  homiletics. 

We  are  thus  led  to  consider  some  of  its  methods.  Most  of 
the  methods  possible  fall  somewhere  within  the  four  following 
classes.  We  have  first  the  expository  lecture.  It  may  or  may 
not  have  structural  form.  Like  the  Biblical  homily,  it  may 
follow  the  order  of  thought  in  the  text  or  like  the  sermon  it 
may  have  a  logical  method  of  its  own,  rearranging  the  material 
structurally  to  suit  that  method.  Its  chief  peculiarity  is  that 
it  has  a  prevailingly  didactic  rather  than  practical  interest. 
Chalmer's  lectures  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  Dale's  lec- 
tures on  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  may  illustrate.  These 
lectures  are  without  sermon  form  and  vary  greatly  in  method 
of  treatment.  We  have  next  the  Biblical  homily ;  a  running 
popular  commentary  on  and  practical  application  of  the  text. 
In  form  it  may  correspond  to  the  lecture,  but  in  its  character 
it  is  more  popular  and  practical.  Dr.  Joseph  Parker's  preaching 
was  largely  of  this  sort.  The  modern  Bible  reading  is  much 
like  the  old  Biblical  homily. 

The  expository  biographical  and  historical  discourse  is  an- 
other class.  This  may  be  handled  in  an  almost  unlimited  variety 
of  ways.  The  text  need  not  be  a  continuous  passage,  and  it 
may  vary  greatly  in  its  length.  Take  the  following  illustrations. 
They  are  all  concrete  examples.* 

♦See  Classical  Library.     Expository  sermons  and  outlines  on  the 
O.  T.  English. 


154  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

Here  we  have  the  discourse  that  takes  a  single  verse  as  a 
heading  and  uses  other  portions  of  Scripture  as  material  for 
expansion.  The  text  is  only  a  figurehead,  c.  ^.,  Sermon  14,  on 
David.*  Text:  2  Samuel  12:7.  "Thou  art  the  Man."  The  text 
only  hints  at  a  single  phase  of  David's  character  and  life,  with 
which  somewhat  comprehensively  the  discourse  deals.  All  bears 
remotely  upon  the  fall,  hut  there  is  much  that  does  not 
relate  to  it.  The  preacher  has  exercised  his  freedom  to  the 
utmost. 

Then  there  is  the  discourse  that  has  an  entire  chapter  as  text, 
bringing  in  also,  in  a  supplemental  way,  other  Scriptures  bear- 
ing upon  the  general  subject  in  the  process  of  discussion.  The 
topics  for  discussion  are  suggested  by  the  salient  features  of 
these  Scriptures  in  their  relation  to  the  general  subject,  e.  q.. 
Sermon  16.  "Elijah's  Flight,"  i  Kings  19. t  Plan:  (i)  Circum- 
stances of  the  time  in  which  Elijah  lived.  (2)  Flight.  (3) 
God's  treatment  of  him,  concluding  with  two  inferential  prac- 
tical suggestions.  Here  too  we  have  an  illustration  of  hnmiletic 
freedom. 

We  have  too  the  discourse  that  has  no  text  at  all.  .\n  ex- 
ample may  be  found  in  Dr.  Joseph  Parker's  discourse  on 
Judas  Iscariot.J  The  material  is  gathered  from  all  the  pas- 
sages in  the  New  Testament  that  refer  to  Judas.  The  first  part 
is  expository,  the  second  practical.  All  these  arc  illustrations 
of  wide  possibilities.  And  these  possibilities  arc  not  limited 
to  biographical  and  historical  discourses,  although  they  may 
have  a  wider  range  in  these  spheres. 

We  have  fniallv  the  expository  sermon  projicr.  It  is  like  any 
topical  sermon,  with  the  difference  that  it  gets  all  its  material 
from  the  Scriptures.  It  has  all  the  parts  of  a  topical  sermon, 
introduction,  theme,  divisions,  orderly  development  and  con- 

*Archdcac<iii   Farrar. 

tDr.  Davidson. 

t'Things  ConcerniiiR  Himself."  jmrc  .?4g. 


THE   EXPOSITORY   TYPE  155 

elusion,  all  bound  together  in  topical  unity.  This  is  the  method 
of  Frederick  W.  Robertson,  with  the  limitation  that  he  failed 
to  formulate  his  theme.  It  is  a  valuable  method.  It  is  not  so 
distinctively  didactic  as  the  expository  lecture,  nor  so  distinc- 
tively practical  as  the  homily,  but  has  the  same  combination  of 
the  didactic  and  the  practical  that  any  textual  or  topical  sermon 
has  or  should  have.  It  is  a  method  that  may  have  very  wide 
range.  It  may  involve  doctrinal  preaching,  for  it  is  likely  to  hit 
upon  the  fundamental  teachings  of  Christianity.  It  may  in- 
volve ethical  preaching,  for  Biblical  material  is  largely  ethical. 
Its  material  may  be  biographical  or  historical.  Much  exposi- 
tory preaching  is  necessarily  of  this  sort.  It  may  be  evangelistic 
in  its  character,  involving  exhortation  and  appeal,  for  its  con- 
tent may  be  the  central  message  of  the  Gospel.  It  is  used 
largely  in  the  evangelistic  preaching  of  our  day.  The  possi- 
bilities of  expository  preaching  as  regards  its  range  are  a 
strong  recommendation  of  it.  It  may  combine  many  and 
varied  elements  of  effective  preaching. 

II.  HoMiLETic  Peculiarities  of  Expository  Preaching 
AH  types  of  the  topical  sermon  are  treated  in  much  the  same 
way,  but  there  are  some  distinctive  features  in  the  handling 
of  the  expository  sermon  that  demand  special  attention.  This 
may  anticipate  somewhat  the  discussion  of  formal  homiletics, 
but  only  in  a  very  limited  measure. 

As  regards  the  text,  unity  of  content  demands  special  em- 
phasis. The  text  is  likely  to  be  too  large  and  cover  too  much 
ground.  It  is  complex  and  varied  in  its  content  of  thought. 
It  is  desirable,  therefore,  that  it  be  reduced  so  that  it  may  be 
made  to  contain  but  one  complex  leading  thought  or  group  of 
cognate  or  related  thoughts  capable  of  being  gathered  into  one 
theme.  If  the  text  covers  too  much  ground,  the  theme,  if  a 
theme  be  secured  from  it.  will  be  too  large,  and  the  discussion. 
therefore,  inadequate  or  interminable.     If  a  single  theme  be 


156  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

not  found  to  cover  the  content,  the  discourse  may  lack  unity. 
It  will  be  a  homily,  not  a  sermon. 

As  regards  the  introduction,  it  is  naturally  briefer  than  that 
of  the  ordinary  topical  sermon.  It  enters  less  into  explanation, 
for  the  whole  sermon  is  explanatory.  A  long  expository  intro- 
duction to  a  sermon  that  is  from  beginning  to  end  expository 
would  be  a  gratuitous  contribution.  If  the  sermon  is  part  of  a 
series,  the  introduction  will  naturally  aim  to  hold  the  continuity 
of  exposition  and  will  necessarily  be  brief,  because  it  will  only 
recapitulate  the  course  of  thought  in  the  last  discourse  or 
possibly  in  the  entire  series  up  to  this  point. 

As  to  the  theme  the  demand  is  that  in  size  it  be  neither  too 
large  nor  too  small  to  fit  the  content  of  thought  discussed.  The 
theme  is  likely  to  be  too  large,  for  the  reason  that  there  is 
likely  to  be  a  large  amount  of  text  behind  it.  It  is  difticult  to 
state  the  theme  of  such  a  sermon,  because  it  covers  so  much 
ground.  The  more  care,  therefore,  is  needed  in  the  statement. 
On  the  other  hand  in  reducing  the  theme  one  is  likely  to  throw 
out  important  material  that  should  be  included  in  the  discus- 
sion. Exceptional  care  in  securing  and  stating  the  theme  will 
aid  in  grouping  the  content  of  the  passage,  which  lies  in  coti- 
fusion  before  the  mind  of  the  hearer,  about  its  central  thought. 
The  whole  sermon  will  then  open  out  before  the  hearer  with 
the  greater  definiteness,  and  mental  confusion  will  be  avoided. 

With  respect  to  the  toi)ics  or  divisions  of  the  sermon,  care 
is  needed  in  two  directions;  first  in  analyzing,  sifting  and  se- 
lecting material  for  discussion,  so  as  to  secure  and  group  only 
the  chief,  salient  i)oints  of  the  passage;  and  secondlv  in  fixing 
upon  some  simple,  clear  order  in  which  these  points  or  topics 
may  be  presented.  Sometimes  the  passage  itself  will  furrn'sh 
the  order  that  is  desirable.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  the 
thoughts  or  topics  will  need  rearranging. 

Touching  the  devclf)ptnciit  or  expansion  of  topics,  the  sug- 
gestive, rather  than  the  exhaustive  method  is  needed      The 


THE   EXPOSITORY  TYPE  157 

material  is  so  abundant  that  it  must  be  touched  lightly,  only 
the  chief,  germinal  thoughts  being  seized  upon. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  suggest  that  the  conclusion  can 
afford  to  be  brief,  and  may  well  attach  itself,  as  often  in  the 
preaching  of  Robertson,  to  the  last  topic  discussed.  An  elab- 
orate applicatory  conclusion  would  be  inappropriate  in  a  dis- 
course which  is  largely  applicatory  from  beginning  to  end. 

The  expository  sermon  of  the  biographical  and  historical 
sort  invites  special  attention.  There  are  two  possible  methods 
of  handling  the  material  of  such  sermons.  There  is  first  the 
method  of  combining  exposition  and  application  in  each  division 
of  the  sermon.  Here  the  application  is  attached  directly  to  the 
exposition  in  the  process  of  discussion.  For  such  sermons  this 
should  seem  to  be  the  better  way.  One  thus  secures  the  greater 
clearness  and  definiteness  of  impression.  One  may  thus  take  as 
text  a  single  fragment  that  suggests  what  is  most  character- 
istic in  the  whole  passage  used,  get  a  theme  out  of  it  and  then 
discuss  and  apply  the  material  as  above  suggested.  To  take 
a  large  passage  would  tax  the  memory  in  its  effort  to  carry  it 
along  and  keep  connection.  The  second  method  separates  the 
expository  from  the  applicatory  section,  dealing  first  with  ex- 
planation and  then  under  a  separate  division  deducing  lessons 
or  making  practical  application.  This  method  seems  better 
adapted  to  the  doctrinal,  than  to  the  biographical  or  historical 
expository  sermon.  By  discussing  first  the  doctrinal  material, 
one  secures  for  it  a  clear,  continuous  and  cumulative  impres- 
sion. Then  one  is  ready  to  make  a  practical  application  of  it. 
The  hearer  does  not  care  to  have  the  preacher  stop  in  his  dis- 
cussion to  moralize  on  his  subject.  He  prefers  a  continuous, 
uninterrupted  discussion.  He  is  ready  for  the  moral  at  the  end. 
Not  so,  however,  with  the  historical  and  biographical  sermon. 
To  be  obliged  to  carry  along  the  whole  mass  of  biographical 
and  historical  material  to  the  end  of  the  exposition  and  then 
recall  it  all  in  the  application  would  be  too  heavy  a  tax  upon 


158  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

the  memory  of  the  hearer.     It  would  seem  better  to  give  the 
exposition  in  installments  in  connection  with  the  application. 

HI.     QlALIFICATIOXS  FOR   EFFECTIVE  EXPOSITORY    PREACHING 

The  same  general  qualifications  are  of  course  needed  in  all 
types  of  effective  preaching.  But  expository  preaching  has  some 
special  exactions.     The   following  suggestions  may  be  made. 

1.  Discriminating  judgment  is  perhaps  the  primal  requisite 
in  successful  expository  preaching.  This  is  taxed  in  the  selec- 
tion and  use  of  material.  A  sense  of  proportion,  of  propriety, 
of  fitness,  of  adaptation,  is  needed  in  determining  just  what 
should  be  selected  for  use.  and  just  what  and  how  much  re- 
jected. It  is  the  germ  thought,  the  gist  of  the  passage  that  is 
wanted.  One  needs  a  firm  grasp  of  the  passage  as  a  whole,  a 
clear  understanding  of  the  central  and  most  important  thoughts 
and  then  good  judgment  in  dealing  with  only  that  which  is  nec- 
essary to  the  realization  of  one's  object  in  the  sermon.  If  the 
exegetical  dominates  the  homiletic  mind,  the  preacher  will  surely 
fail  to  discriminate  between  what  is  important  and  what  is  un- 
essential to  his  purpose.  The  exegetical  mind  is  a  very  differ- 
ent product  from  the  homiletical  mind.  The  one  is  accustomed 
to  minute  analysis.  It  subjects  all  parts  alike  of  a  given  pas- 
sage to  investigation.  The  other  simply  uses  what  is  practically 
important.  Skill  is  needed  in  homiletic  analysis,  then  skill  in 
combining  the  results  synthetically.  The  first  thing  to  do  is  to 
sift  the  elements  of  thought  in  the  passage  and  then  to  select 
what  one  needs  for  homiletic  use.  Less  skill  in  invention  is 
needed  here  than  in  ordinary  topical  preaching,  for  the  reason 
that  the  material  in  crude  form  lies  near  at  hand  in  the  text. 
But  a  great  deal  of  skill  in  analysis  is  needed,  skill  in  sifting 
out,  selecting  and  ultimately  in  combining  into  unity  the  subject 
matter  of  the  sermon. 

2.  Historical  and  literary  sense  also  is  a  necessary  gift  for 
the  expository  preacher.     One  needs  to  cultivate  the  ability  to 


THE   EXPOSITORY   TYPE  159 

get  behind  a  writer's  language,  to  enter  into  his  spirit,  to  make 
real  to  one's  self  the  conditions  of  his  thought,  to  get  the  flavor 
of  what  he  says,  to  catch  what  is  distinctive  in  it  and  to  inter- 
pret him  in  a  large  and  generous  and  suggestive  way.  In  a 
word  there  is  demanded  the  gift  of  the  interpreter.  No  one 
has  that  gift  who  fails  to  see  that  the  Bible  must  be  studied  as 
a  literary  product,  just  as  any  other  book  is  studied,  only  more 
sympathetically  and  devoutly  than  any  other  book  is  entitled  to 
be  studied.  It  is  very  easy  to  foist  one's  own  thought  upon  the 
writers  of  the  Bible.  Men  of  lively  imagination,  of  nimble 
mental  movement  are  very  likely  to  do  this.  One  must  have 
care  to  bring  out  in  a  legitimate  way  what  belongs  to  the  writer, 
what  he  naturally  suggests  or  what  he  furnishes  as  a  natural 
basis  for  suggestion,  rather  than  what  is  forced  from  him  by 
some  process  of  exegetical  or  homiletical  twisting.  A  Biblical 
writer  may  prove  suggestive  far  beyond  his  original  intent,  as 
any  productive  writer  may.  But  far-fetched  suggestions  tor- 
ture the  historic  sense.  No  type  of  preaching  exacts  so  closely 
upon  a  well  balanced  judgment  and  upon  a  chastened  taste, 
such  as  are  inseparable  from  sound  historic  and  literary  sense. 
The  attempt  to  modernize  the  Scriptures  demands  extreme 
care.  Professional  evangelists  and  preachers  who  are  un- 
trained thinkers  are  very  likely  to  deal  in  crude  anachronisms 
in  their  expository  preaching,  that  is,  they  deal  unhistorically 
with  Scripture  scenes  and  characters,  which  is  to  say  that  they 
handle  them  without  good  exegetical  as  well  as  homiletical 
sense,  or  without  properly  translating  the  Scriptures  into  and 
applying  them  to  the  real  present.  The  applications  are 
strained.  The  scenes  and  characters  masquerade  in  grotesque 
guises.  Mr.  Moody,  despite  his  strong  common  sense  and  clear 
judgment  and  quickness  of  insight,  was  sometimes  led  into 
such  anachronisms.  All  this  results  from  the  lack  of  a  trained 
historic  and  literary  sense.  One  needs  the  ability  to  transfer 
oneself  into  other  times,  to  get  into  the  lives  of  the  men  of  other 


i6o  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

days,  and  to  live  them  over  with  them.  It  demands  also  a 
knowledge  of  the  people  and  the  conditions  of  our  time.  Thus 
only  may  one  successfully  and  correctly  translate  the  past  into 
the  present.  The  Bible  may  be  made  a  new  book  in  the  hands 
of  a  master  of  interpretation,  like  Frederick  Robertson,  who 
knows  how  to  discover  and  to  appropriate  and  apply  its  lessons 
to  his  own  age.  All  this  demands  trained  perception  of  his- 
toric analogies,  so  that  one  may  interpret  what  is  specific  in 
history  or  experience  by  what  is  generic,  or  may  interpret  what 
is  generic  by  what  is  specific. 

3.  Aptitude  for  moral  ideas,  /.  c,  a  trained  facility  in  appre- 
hending and  applying  truth  with  reference  to  ethical  interests, 
is  another  valuable  quality  in  the  expository  preacher. 
Preachers  differ  greatly  in  this  regard.  Some  seem  to  have  re- 
ceived the  gift,  and  some  have  cultivated  it  more  fully  than 
others.  Important  as  a  homiletic  gift  in  general,  it  is  particu- 
larly so  here.  Scotch  and  Welsh  preachers  are  preeminently 
gifted  in  this  aptitude  for  moralizing.  It  is  possible  that  the 
expository  habit  in  preaching  has  developed  the  gift.  They 
have  cultivated  the  skill  to  interject  practical,  admonitory  or 
edifying  suggestions  into  their  exposition.  The  Puritan  preach- 
ers were  trained  in  the  exercise  of  this  gift.  It  is  susceptible 
of  indefinite  cultivation  and  will  prove  a  valuable  posses- 
sion for  any  man  who  would  be  successful  in  this  type  of 
preaching. 

4.  Power  of  vigorous,  concentrated  statement  may  also  be 
named  as  a  valuable  expository  gift.  The  great  amount  of  ma- 
terial at  hand  necessitates  the  gift  of  condensation.  The  ex- 
pository preacher  has  an  "embarrassment  of  riches."  Success 
depends  on  condensation  and  concentration  on  what  is  of  chief 
importance.  Hence  the  value  of  the  sermon  form.  With  a 
well-conceived  and  well-stated  theme,  orderly  plan,  and  careful 
method  of  development,  one  can  realize  to  better  advantage 
the  requisite  clearness  and  compactness  of  statement. 


THE  EXPOSITORY  TYPE  i6i 

5.  Facility  in  the  handling  of  descriptive  and  narrative  ma- 
terial is  sure  to  have  carrying  power  in  the  expository  dis- 
course. A  great  amount  of  this  material  is  found  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  this  is  one  reason  why  it  is  so  well  adapted  to 
and  is  so  much  used  in  this  type  of  preaching.  This  facility  is 
of  special  value  in  the  historical  and  biographical  discourse. 
The  Scriptures  in  general  strongly  appeal  to  a  picturesque  and 
vivid  literary  style. 

6.  Candor  in  dealing  with  difficulties  is  an  important  ethical 
gift  in  this  type  of  sermon.  One  is  summoned  to  the  exercise 
of  candor  in  this  as  in  no  other  sort  of  preaching,  for  the  ex- 
positor is  sure  to  meet  diffi<culties  which  he  cannot  honestly 
evade.  Caution,  of  course,  is  needed.  A  preacher  should  be 
wise  in  dealing  with  what  honest  and  worthy,  and  intelligent 
people,  although  possibly  uninstructed  in  the  vexed  problems 
of  Biblical  criticism,  have  regarded  and  do  regard  as  sacred. 
There  is  in  general  no  need  in  our  day  of  scandalizing  anybody 
in  interpreting  the  modern  view  of  the  Bible,  save  the  rather 
exceptional  man,  who  is  so  dense  in  his  ignorance  and  preju- 
dice that  he  is  incapable  of  illumination.  But  no  special  plead- 
ing is  tolerable.  The  word  of  God  should  not  be  handled  de- 
ceitfully but  in  such  way  as  to  commend  it  to  every  man's  con- 
science, as  well  as  intelligence,  in  the  sight  of  God  as  well  as 
of  men.  No  hopeless  dogmatic  precommittals  here,  no  mini- 
mizing of  real  difficulties,  if  also  no  parading  of  imaginary  or 
relatively  insignificant  difficulties.  This  type  of  preaching  tends 
to  foster  candor  in  the  preacher,  and  this  is  a  strong  argument 
in  its  favor.  It  gives  the  preacher  an  opportunity  to  deal  with 
Biblical  difficulties,  especially  those  of  an  ethical  sort,  in  such 
way  that  the  people  will  receive  no  shock.  In  no  type  of 
preaching  can  a  man  so  well  afford  to  deal  with  entire,  but 
judicious  frankness.  Difficulties  are  taken  up  in  a  perfectly 
natural  way  and  as  a  matter  of  course  and  are  not  dragged 
into  or  paraded  in  the  sermon. 


i62  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

IV.  The  Value  of  Expository  Preaching 
I.  He  who  cultivates  it  will  be  in  line  with  much  of  the 
most  effective  preaching  of  other  days.  It  may  be  justly 
claimed  that  it  has  been  the  prevailing  type  of  preaching  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  church.  Doubtless  to  the  theological 
or  homiletic  radical  the  antiquity  of  anything  is  no  argument 
in  its  favor.  But  it  is  natural  for  a  person  of  sound  judgment 
to  infer  the  value  of  expository  preaching  for  the  Juiure  from 
its  value  in  the  past.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  in  fact  mod- 
ern Biblical  investigation  has  turned  the  attention  of  preach- 
ers in  this  direction.  Early  Christianity  was  propagated  by 
Biblical  preaching.  It  rejected  the  dialectical  and  rhetorical 
methods  of  classical  antiquity  and  won  its  victory  without 
them.  It  needed  new  methods,  methods  that  were  its  own. 
It  is  true  that  it  developed  a  dialectic  and  rhetoric  that  were 
peculiar  to  itself,  and  that  it  ultimately  appropriated  them,  as  it 
appropriated  a  philosophy,  from  outside  sources.  But  it  won 
its  first  conquests  by  the  power  of  the  spirit  that  dwelt  within 
it  and  was  native  to  it.  and  by  a  subject  matter  that  was  its 
own,  rather  than  by  an  imported  subject  matter  or,  what  is 
specifically  to  the  point  in  hand,  by  the  form  of  its  presenta- 
tion. And  it  is  a  method,  which,  in  its  artlessness,  has  always 
proved  eft'ective  in  any  new  awakening  of  the  religious  life. 
We  get  back  to  Biblical  sources  and  methods  as  to  the  ever- 
fresh  fountains  and  streams  of  religious  life  and  power.  It 
is  then  that  preaching  strikes  out  for  itself  simpler  and  more 
direct  methods  and  more  in  accord  with  the  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity. By  far  the  larger  part  of  Luther's  and  of  Calvin's 
discourses  are  expository.  In  the  Methodist  revival  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  topical  method  was  used  by  Wesley, 
who  in  this  as  otherwise  followed  customs  that  were  common 
in  the  Anglican  church.  But  this  method  was  used  success- 
fully in  the  interpretation  of  the  Biblical  material  of  the  topical 


THE   EXPOSITORY   TYPE  163 

sermon,  and  the  expository  method  itself  became  increasingly 
common.  In  the  English  revivals  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries  this  was  largely  the  method  by  which  they 
were  furthered.  The  Puritan  preachers  were  largely  Biblical 
preachers,  as  were  the  non-conforming  preachers  of  a  subse- 
quent day.  Baxter  was  a  notable  example  of  a  fruitful  Biblical 
preacher.  Scotch  preachers  have  to  a  large  extent  followed 
the  expository  method.  German  preaching  in  its  best  periods 
has  renewed  its  Biblical  tone  and  form  and  today  it  is  largely 
expository  or  textual.  French  Protestant  preaching  has 
adopted  this  method  to  a  considerable  extent  and  in  its  early 
period  almost  wholly,  and  that  despite  the  fact  that  French 
preaching  in  general  is  more  largely  topical  than  British  or 
German,  for  the  reason  that  it  has  been  more  fully  subject  to 
rhetorical  culture.  Saurin,  the  greatest  of  French  Protestant 
preachers,  generally  made  the  first  division  of  his  discourse  ex- 
pository, although  his  method  would  be  called  topical.  In  our 
own  day,  as  in  the  past,  we  notice  a  tendency  in  periods  of 
special  religious  awakening  to  a  more  Biblical  basis  for 
preaching,  which  has  greatly  enhanced  its  power. 

2.  In  line  with  the  preceding  consideration,  one  may  note 
that  in  fact  it  is  an  acceptable  method.  It  is  in  harmony  not 
only  with  the  needs,  but  with  the  wishes  of  the  people.  It  is 
in  line  with  the  Biblical  study  of  our  day  and  with  increasing 
interest  in  Biblical  literature.  The  preacher  knows,  or  should 
know,  more  about  the  Bible  in  many  respects  than  preachers 
have  ever  known  before.  He  has  a  more  comprehensive  estimate 
of  it,  critical,  historical,  literary,  ethical  and  theological  and 
has,  or  should  have,  a  more  intelligent  interest  in  the  study  of 
it.  Sunday  school  instruction,  which  has  largely  displaced  pas- 
toral catechetics  that  was  formerly  based  on  the  theology  of 
the  church,  has  done  much  in  preparing  the  way  among  the 
people  for  Biblical  preaching.  The  preacher  may  have  there- 
fore, the  greater  confidence  in  the  willingness  of  the  members 


i64  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

of  his  congregation  to  listen  to  it.  Popular  preachers  like  Dr. 
Joseph  Parker  have  found  that  they  can  etifectively  reach  men 
in  this  way,  and  in  the  presence  of  promiscuous  assemblies 
have  not  been  afraid  to  trust  themselves  to  it.  The  career  in 
New  York  City  of  preachers  like  Ur.  William  M.  Taylor  and 
Dr.  John  Hall,  who  have  interested  great  congregations  com- 
posed largely  of  men  by  a  simple,  straight-forward  practical 
exposition  and  application  of  the  teachings  of  the  Bible,  is 
noteworthy.  All  this  indicates,  and  it  is  a  very  hopeful  indica- 
tion, that  there  is  increasing  interest  in  this  wonderful  book. 
H  one  will  watch  a  congregation  in  its  reception  of  the  truth 
presented  in  an  effective  expository  manner,  he  will  see  and  he 
will  be  impressed  anew  with  the  fact  that  the  Bible  is  a  pro- 
foundly interesting  book  to  people  of  average  intelligence,  and 
the  preacher  who  has  tested  this  will  have  the  greater  confi- 
dence in  attempting  to  utilize  the  fact. 

3.  Another  consideration  is  that  it  is  a  method  which  is  in 
harmony  with  the  preacher's  primary  function.  The  preacher 
is  an  interpreter  of  Biblical  truth.  Like  all  public  speakers, 
he  is  indeed  an  advocate.  But  he  is  an  interpreter  before  he  is 
an  advocate.  One  may  interpret  truth  without  expounding  it 
Biblically.  But  in  leaving  the  Scripture  text  and  discussing  the 
theme  independently  the  preacher  introduces  a  new  factor  into 
his  work.  He  interprets  indirectly  and  it  may  be  meagrely. 
But  let  one  make  the  Scripture  passage  the  immediate  basis  of 
one's  work  and  he  will  realize  more  immediately  and  more 
fully  the  interpreting  function.  It  is  well  to  oblige  oneself,  by 
the  use  of  the  expository  method  in  a  measure  at  least,  to  keep 
the  interpreting  function  before  the  mind.  It  may  be  of  ad- 
vantage to  the  entire  work  of  preaching  by  holding  other  forms 
more  closely  to  the  Biblical  basis. 

4.  Its  value  for  the  work  of  religious  instruction  is  entitled 
to  special  consideration.  It  yields  an  abundance  of  fresh  and 
varied  material.    All  advocates  of  it  lay  stress  upon  this  point. 


THE   EXPOSITORY  TYPE  165 

and  all  preachers  who  have  tested  it  have  found  it  to  be  true. 
It  is  an  economical  use  of  preaching  force,  for  it  necessitates  a 
thorough  contextual  study  of  the  Scriptures  and  thus  furnishes 
a  large  amount  of  material  for  preaching  ready  at  hand.  No 
wonder  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  was  so  fertile  a  preacher.  His 
preaching  was  simply  the  product  of  continual  Biblical  study. 
In  possession  of  all  this  material,  one  has  an  immense  advan- 
tage at  the  outset.  Out  of  such  study,  sermons  are  easily  pro- 
duced. Recall  individual  sermons  of  Frederick  Robertson, 
e.  g.,  Jacob's  wrestling,  from  the  book  of  Genesis,  and  God's 
Revelation  of  Heaven,  and  many  others.  It  is  questionable 
whether  we  should  have  had  these  sermons  in  their  present 
richness,  suggestiveness  and  helpfulness  without  the  previous 
expository  study  that  was  given  to  the  books  from  which  they 
come.  In  fact  all  of  Robertson's  preaching  seems  to  have  been 
based  on  his  Biblical  studies.  And  this  is  one  of  the  sources  of 
his  great  helpfulness  as  a  preacher.  Moreover  this  type  of 
preaching  is  likely  to  secure  more  correct  teaching  than  the 
topical  method.  The  material  is  likely  to  be  more  reliable  as 
well  as  abundant  and  varied.  No  studious  man  in  our  day  can 
preach  expositorily  to  any  considerable  extent,  or  with  much 
success,  without  making  use  of  modern  methods  of  Biblical 
investigation.  That  the  results  of  this  investigation  give  the 
preacher  an  opportunity  and  an  incentive  to  ground  his  people 
in  a  better  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  is  a  strong  argument  in 
favor  of  this  method.  One  who  preaches  expositorily  upon  the 
books  of  the  Bible  will  as  of  necessity  discuss  their  distinctive 
characteristics.  In  this  way  the  uninstructed  will  come  to 
understand  them  better,  and  thus  the  more  readily  measure 
their  value  for  the  religious  life.  This  must  have  been  the  result 
of  such  expository  discourses  as  those  of  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  on 
the  Letter  to  the  Ephesians  and  those  of  Robertson  on  the  book 
of  Genesis,  the  books  of  Samuel,  the  book  of  the  Acts  and  the 
Epistles  to  the  Corinthians.    Thus  the  human  side  of  the  Bible 


i66  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

will  emerge  to  view  the  more  naturally  and  the  divine  side  will 
be  the  more  intelligently  apprehended.  One  will  be  put  upon  the 
necessity  of  doing  justice  lu  llic  historic  sense  of  the  Scriptures 
and  of  educating  one's  congregation  away  from  those  false 
conccjitions  of  them  that  arc  still  prevalent.  In  this  way,  the 
Bible  may  become  a  more  valuable  buok  in  the  entire  parish,  for 
this  sort  of  preaching  will  become  tributary  to  the  work  of  re- 
ligious instruction  in  the  home  and  in  the  Sunday  School  and 
in  the  catechetical  class. 

The  teaching  thus  communicated  is  likely  also  to  be  the  most 
weighty  sort  of  teaching.  It  gets  back  to  the  fountain  head  of 
the  Christian  revelation.  It  is  no  product  of  subjective  specu- 
lation. There  is  but  very  little  doctrinal  preaching  in  our  day 
of  any  sort.  But  no  topical  preacher  of  the  doctrinal  type, 
even  if  we  had  him.  could  be  as  weightily  instructive  as  the  old 
New  England  ilocirinal  preacher  in  hi>  da\  and  according  to 
his  kind.  That  preaching  was  based  on  a  well-defined  system 
of  doctrinal  theology.  It  was  after  its  sort  doctrinally  instruc- 
tive. It  did  its  work,  in  its  way  a  grand  work.  From  the  basis 
of  our  present  homiletic  and  theologic  standards,  it  is  easy  to 
criticise  it.  Of  course  it  would  not  succeed  in  our  day.  There 
is  no  call  for  just  tliat  sort  of  preaching.  The  modern  didactic 
sermon  in  order  to  be  successful  most  be  rhetorically  attrac- 
tive. We  no  longer  preach  our  systems  of  theology,  even  if 
we  have  them,  and  we  should  not  preach  them  probably  if  we 
had  them  at  hand  more  fully  developed  than  we  now  have 
them.  Preaching  by  suggestion  rather  than  by  elaboration  best 
satisfies  the  modern  congregation.  But  shallow,  flippant  crit- 
icism of  our  homiletic  fathers  is  unseemly.  That  old  doc- 
trinal preaching  was  instructive  in  its  way.  The  hearer  was 
strongly  indoctrinated.  And  in  our  day  there  may  l>e  a  great 
loss  in  the  instructive,  edifying  (juality  of  our  preachirig,  unless 
we  find  some  substitute  or  supplemental  method  of  conveying 
solid  religious  truth.     Where  shall  wc  find  it?     It  is  the  Bibli- 


THE   EXPOSITORY   TYPE  167 

cal  expository  method  that  will  do  this  work  of  instruction  and 
to  better  purpose  than  tiie  old  doctrinal  inetiiod.  There  is  no 
reason  why  we  should  swing  to  the  opposite  extreme  and  decry 
doctrinal  preaching  in  the  distinctive  sense.  It  is  to  be  remem- 
bered also  that  in  the  presentation  of  Biblical  truth  in  non- 
dogmatic  form  the  results  of  one's  study  in  doctrinal  theology 
will  appear  and  may  well  appear.  But  after  all  the  Biljlical. 
which  is  namely  the  non-dogmatic  method  of  preaching,  pre- 
sents religious  instruction  in  the  best  manner.  Not  only  is 
the  substance  weighty  but  the  form  may  be  made  attractive. 
It  may  lay  the  foundation  for  a  better  and  more  successful 
type  of  doctrinal  preaching,  a  type  that  will  be  more  fully 
in  harmony  with  the. tastes  and  culture  of  our  time.  Biblical 
science  lias  become  tributary  to  doctrinal  theology,  in  fact  has 
laid  new  foundations  for  it,  and  put  it  in  line  with  present 
habits  of  thought.  And  just  so  a  broader  and  a  more  correct 
expository  and  practical  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  pulpit  may  lay 
the  foundations  for  a  better  type  of  doctrinal  preaching. 

It  is  contained  in  what  has  already  been  said,  that  the  Bib- 
lical type  tends  to  secure  for  preaching  in  general  a  desirable 
objective  quality.  It  will  be  not  only  more  fresh  and  varied 
and  more  correct  and  weighty  teaching,  but  it  will  l)e  less  ex- 
posed to  the  manifold  defects  of  sulijective  caprice,  or  sub- 
jective speculation.*  As  preaching  strays  from  a  Biblical 
basis,  it  tends  to  subjectivity,  it  may  become  rationalistically 
subjective  or  mystically  subjective  or  aesthetically  subjective 
according  to  the  preacher's  prevailing  tendency  or  the  ten- 
dency of  his  time,  or  of  the  circle  to  which  he  belongs.  The 
restoration  of  the  Biblical  quality  involves  a  restoration  of 
objective  quality  both  in  susbtance  and  form. 

5.  Its  value  to  the  religious  life  of  the  congregation  com- 
mends it  to  our  favor.     The  religious  life  can  not  grow  unless 


*See   Prof.   Shedd's   Humiletics   and    Pastoral   Theology.     Chap.    1, 
page  21  ;  Chap,  ill,  page  75  ff. 


i68  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

it  is  fed.  It  is  Biblical  pahulinn,  judiciously  served,  that  is 
most  wholesome  and  nutritious.  In  abandoning  the  Biblical 
type,  preaching  is  likely  to  run  into  one-sidedness.  It  settles 
into  ruts  and  it  becomes  unprofitable.  In  reaction  it  pushes 
from  one  extreme  to  another,  all  one-sided  and  ultimately  un- 
protiiable.  This  may  be  illustrated  copiously.  The  Biblical 
method  of  the  Reformation,  for  example,  was  abandoned  for 
the  dogmatic  method  of  the  post — Reformation,  which  was  a 
survival  and  revival  of  the  topical  scholastic  type.  Then  came 
a  reaction  against  its  unfruitfulness  in  favor  of  a  mystical  or 
pietistic,  which  was  an  extreme  of  the  sentimental  and  emo- 
tional type  of  jjreaching.  This  too  ran  itself  down  and  out 
into  equal  unfruitfulness.  Xow  the  interesting  thing  is  that 
after  these  reactions,  there  is  a  return  to  Biblical  preaching. 
The  extremes  of  dogmatic  and  of  pietistic  sentimental 
preaching  give  place  to  the  Biblical  basis  which  is  notable  in 
our  own  day.  Take  as  an  illustration  the  preaching  of  the 
United  States.  The  old  doctrinal  type  had  its  run  in  New 
England.  At  one  time  there  was  almost  nothing  but  doctrinal 
preaching  of  the  topical  or  propositional  type.  Against  the 
doctrines  of  this  preaching  and  naturally  against  its  method 
liberalism  so-called  reacted.  As  a  result  there  emerged  a  type 
of  preaching,  modified  in  substance  and  form  that  was  ration- 
alistic and  ethical.  It  had  better  literary  quality.  This 
rationalizing,  ethical,  a-sthetic  or  literary  quality  has  charac- 
terized the  preaching  of  the  so-called  liberal  churches  ever 
since.  Other  influences,  with  wliich  we  need  not  linger,  have 
been  at  work  modifying  American  preaching,  securing  for  it  a 
more  sympathetic,  a  more  ethical,  a  better  literary  quality  and 
greater  rhetorical  effectiveness.  And  now  the  thing  to  be 
noted  is  that,  amid  all  these  movements,  we  see  a  tendency 
back  to  the  Biblical  type  which  tends  to  check  the  one-sided- 
ness and  to  correct  the  unpri)fitableness  of  any  one  dominant 
tendency.     And  it  may  be  believed  that  all  this  indicates  a  rec- 


THE   EXPOSITORY   TYPE  169 

ognition  of  the  needs  of  the  religious  Hfe  of  the  churches.  For 
the  churches  have  always  thriven  on  such  preaching.  It  tends 
to  check  extremes  and  furnishes  nutriment  for  the  religious 
life.  It  is  a  type  of  preaching  that  furthers  the  interests  of 
the  worshipping  assembly.  The  pulpit  orator  and  the  pulpit 
oration  have  their  place.  But  for  the  ordinary  Christian  con- 
gregation a  large  amount  of  Biblical  preaching,  shaped  indeed 
with  reference  to  rhetorical  effectiveness,  but  still  Biblical  in 
substance  and  method,  will  prove  most  helpful  to  the  religious 
life. 

6.  But  not  the  least  important  consideration  is  its  value  to 
the  preacher  himself.  Take  the  case  of  Frederick  Robertson 
as  an  illustration.  Its  value  to  him  in  a  variety  of  ways  is 
most  notable,  but  especially  in  anchoring  him  to  objective  his- 
toric truth.  By  reason  of  his  somewhat  morbid  and  strongly 
subjective  tendencies,  thrown  as  he  was  into  an  age  of  dislodg- 
ment  from  the  old  foundations,  he  was  in  danger  of  a  wreck 
of  faith.  No  one  can  feel  sure  where  he  would  have  landed, 
if  he  had  not  been  held  by  objective,  historic,  Biblical  truth. 
His  Biblical  method  of  preaching  may  have  secured  him  also 
from  an  extreme  of  the  dialectical  or  dogmatic  method,  at  least 
it  may  have  been  influential  in  arresting  and  checking  such 
tendency.  For  it  is  noteworthy  that  Robertson  was  not  only  a 
man  of  very  strong  convictions,  but  of  very  resolute  will  and 
might  easily  have  become  a  polemist.  Moreover,  he  was  a 
man  of  great  dialectical  ability  and  might  have  developed  as 
much  dialectical  skill  as  Newman.  If  he  had  trained  himself 
as  an  advocate  of  Church  theology,  he  might  have  become  a 
most  powerful  popular  dogmatist  and  apologist,  as  much  so  as 
Robert  South,  and  he  might  have  become  a  bishop  in  the 
Anglican  church!  For  he  was  by  far  the  most  powerful 
preacher  the  church  of  England  produced  in  the  last  century. 
But  he  chose  the  better  way,  better  for  himself,  better  for  his 
church,  better  for  all  who  have  felt  his  power,  better  for  the 


I70  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

world,  and  he  has  left  a  more  lasting  influence  than  otherwise 
might  ha\e  been  possible.  He  chose  the  good  part  that  never 
shall  be  taken  away. 

7.  A  final  word  should  be  spoken  in  behalf  of  its  rhetorical 
efifectiveness.  Much  expository  preaching  has  doubtless  lacked 
such  effectiveness.  Rut  preachers  like  Robertson  and  Parker 
illustrate  its  rhetorical  possibilities.  The  Biblical  material  of 
such  preaching  is  rich  in  rhetorical  and  poetic  suggestiveness. 
It  must  be  concrete  and  illustrative  preaching.  What  has  been 
said  about  the  rhetorical  value  of  texts  in  general  for  the  work 
of  preaching,  may  be  said  with  increased  emphasis  of  the  use 
of  the  Scriptures  in  expository  preaching.  The  Bible  deals 
with  human  life  in  its  most  intense  reality.  Preaching  from 
such  a  book  naturally  cultivates  the  concrete  habit  of  mind, 
and  it  will  speak  to  the  imagination  and  emotions.  It  deals  with 
the  human  as  well  as  the  divine  heart.  Preaching  that  moves 
in  such  a  realm  will  naturally  be  simple  and  practical  and 
human,  for  its  aim  will  be  primarily  to  interpret  the  truth  with 
reference  to  the  interests  of  common  human  life.  It  does  not 
call  for  great  oratory.  It  calls  for  simple,  clear,  straight,  vig- 
orous, sometimes  pungent,  cumulative  indeed,  but  plain,  un- 
artistic  presentation,  with  reference  to  the  interests  of  a  purer, 
nobler,  more  intelligent  indeed,  but  above  all  a  more  practical 
Christian  life. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE 

I.  The  Conception  of  Doctrinal  Preaching 
There  is  in  our  day  a  strong  reaction  against  what  is  known 
specifically  as  doctrinal  preaching.  To  meet  this  prejudice  and 
in  the  interest  of  effectiveness,  it  were  well  for  us  at  the  out- 
set to  secure  a  limit  for  our  conception  of  it.  We  will  limit  [/ 
it  then  to  the  presentation  of  those  truths  that  are  properly 
articles  of  a  Christian  creed. 

Doctrinal  preaching  is  the  preaching  of  doctrine.  Its  ma-  ■^ 
terial  is  doctrine,  its  object  is  to  convince,  its  method  is  proof. 
But  what  are  we  to  understand  by  doctrine  as  the  term  is  used 
here?  It  is  natural  to  think  of  it  in  the  first  place  as  a  truth 
that  does  not  stand  by  itself  alone.  It  does  not  find  its  com- 
plete significance  in  itself.  It  is  a  related  truth.  It  exists  in 
organic  connection  with  other  truths.  It  is  part  of  the  system 
of  Christian  thought,  which  is  evolved  from  the  thought  con- 
tent of  Christianity. 

It  is  a  truth,  therefore,  that  is  central  and  fundamental.  It 
is  its  importance  for  Christian  thought  and  life  that  fixes  its 
place.  Not  every  Christian  truth  may  be  elevated  to  the  rank 
of  a  central  and  fundamental  doctrine.  The  sort  and  size  of 
the  truth  must  be  taken  into  account.  A  doctrine  in  the  sense 
intended  here  is  not  secured  by  throwing  any  sort  of  relatively 
insignificant  Christian  thought  into  the  form  of  a  proposition. 
It  is  a  truth  selected  on  account  of  its  importance  from  a  large 
number  of  minor  truths  and  lifted  into  prominence.  It  thus 
becomes  a  significant  article  of  Christian  faith.    The  doctrine 


172  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

of  the  atonement,  e.  g.,  is  selected  from  a  group  of  truths  re- 
lating to  the  saving  significance  of  Christ's  work.  A  doctrine 
then,  as  understood  in  this  discussion,  embodies  what  is  cen- 
tral and  fundamental  in  Christianity  and  is  of  supreme  interest 
for  Christian  faith  and  life.  Such  a  truth  is  capable  of  being 
expressed  in  terms  of  rational  thought.  It  can  be  formulated, 
provisionally  at  least.  A  doctrine  is  a  truth,  but  not  every 
truth  is  a  doctrine.  Any  unformulated  statement  of  Christian 
thought  may  contain  a  truth.  Many  of  them  perhaps.  But 
the  discussion  of  such  a  truth  would  not  be  doctrinal  preaching 
in  the  sense  intended  here.  A  truth  becomes  a  doctrine  when 
it  can  be  put  into  a  complex  proposition.  The  atonement  for 
example  may  be  a  fact,  or  a  truth  or  a  doctrine.  The  fact  is 
that  the  life  and  death  of  Christ  had  relation  to  human  sin. 
It  is  a  fact  independently  of  any  accurate  or  complete  concep- 
tion of  its  significance,  or  any  formal  statement  of  its  rationale. 
It  is  Christ's  work,  it  is  God's  work  and  is  objectively  valid 
independently  of  any  theory  of  its  validity.  But  to  preach 
the  fact  of  the  atonement,  simply  as  a  fact,  is  not  to  preach 
the  doctrine.  The  truth  of  the  atonement  belongs  to  our  con- 
ception of  the  meaning  of  redemption  and  relates  to  Christ's 
living  and  dying  as  a  redemptive  provision.  But  this  does  not 
necessarily  involve  any  formulated  statement  as  to  the  method 
by  which  his  sacrificial  life  and  death  become  valid  for  our 
redemption.  The  doctrine  properly  deals  with  this  question. 
It  is  a  question  of  method,  of  the  inner  relation  of  the  atone- 
ment to  redemption,  the  rationale  of  its  saving  significance. 
The  doctrine  at  any  rate  has.  with  whatever  success,  or  lack  of 
success,  undertaken  to  answer  this  question.  One  may  preach 
the  fact  or  the  truth,  and  it  may  not  be  necessary  to  formulate 
it  into  a  doctrine  and  present  it  from  the  pulpit.  It  is  gen- 
erally regarded  in  our  day  as  unnecessary.  But  it  would  seem 
to  be  desirable  that  an  educated  and  intelligent  Christian  min- 
ister should  be  able  to  tell  his  hearers  what  is  meant  by  the 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  173 

saving  significance  of  Christ's  life  and  death,  should  be  able 
to  interpret  its  rational  and  moral  value  and  should  be  able 
to  furnish  an  intelligent  basis  for  believing  and  accepting  it. 
A  doctrine  then,  as  intended  here,  is  a  related,  fundamental, 
formulated  truth. 

It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  doctrinal  preaching  is  something 
more  and  other  than  didactic  preaching.  All  instructive 
preaching  is  didactic,  whatever  its  subject  matter  or  method 
of  presentation.  All  helpful  preachers  are  instructive  but  not 
necessarily  doctrinal.  There  are  but  very  few  doctrinal 
preachers  in  our  day.  But  no  man  would  be  worthy  of  his 
position  who  could  not  instruct  his  congregation.  Even  the 
preacher  who  aims  chiefly  at  ethical  and  emotional  incentive, 
in  so  far  as  he  elucidates  the  truth,  is  at  the  same  time  a 
didactic  preacher. 

Neither  is  doctrinal  identical  with  dogmatic  preaching.  The 
word  dogmatic  has  a  variety  of  meanings  and  is  a  little  diffi- 
cult to  define.  In  general  it  suggests  something  authoritative. 
The  proper  and  in  theological  circles  the  accepted  meaning  of 
dogma  is  the  formulated  statement  of  a  doctrinal  concensus. 
It  bears  the  mark  of  some  sort  of  agreement.  And  this,  if 
nothing  else,  secures  for  it  a  certain  note  of  authority.  It  may 
be  the  authority  of  ecclesiastical  statute  law.  It  may  be  the 
authority  of  what  may  be  called  common  ecclesiastical  law  or 
the  tacit  agreement  or  consensus  of  those  who  belong  to  the 
same  communion  or  church.  It  is  an  authority  that  may  or 
may  not  be  enforced.  But  in  any  case  there  is  a  certain  sug- 
gestion of  authority  about  it.  It  may  only  be  rational  or  moral 
authority.  But  all  who  accept  dogma  are  expected  in  a  general 
way  at  least  to  adhere  to  it.  They  at  any  rate  accept  it  "for 
substance  of  doctrine."  Dogma  then  belongs  to  the  doctrinal 
foundations  of  a  church,  sect  or  denomination.  It  is  probably 
this  notion  of  authority  associated  with  the  word,  although  it 
may  be  a  very  shadowy  sort  of  authority,  that,  in  this  demo- 


174  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

cratic  age,  makes  it  offensive.  It  may  not  be  ecclesiastically 
enforced  at  all.  and  yet  there  lingers  about  it  a  certain  note 
of  positiveness,  of  assurance  as  of  something  that  should  be 
accepted,  even  if  upon  nothing  more  than  rational  and  moral 
grounds.  But  there  may  be  to  some  an  offense  even  in  this. 
Accordingly,  when  we  speak  of  a  dogmatic  preacher,  we  gen- 
erally mean  one  whose  tone  is  rather  more  positive,  or  con- 
fident or  authoritative  than  we  like,  as  if  he  expected  us  to 
accept  his  teaching  as  a  matter  of  course.  But  doctrinal 
preaching  need  not  be  dogmatic  in  tone  in  any  offensive,  over- 
authoritative  sense.  Surely  it  should  not  be  regarded  as  of- 
fensively dogmatic  because  it  is  positive.  Much  less  need  it 
he  dogmatic  in  the  proper  ecclesiastical  sense  of  the  term. 
i.  c  as  containing  the  teaching  that  somehow  bears  the  mark 
of  church  authoritv.  For  one  mav  not  fully  accept  the  doc- 
trinal standards  of  his  church,  may  not  accept  them  at  all  save 
upon  the  basis  of  most  liberal  construction,  as  is  the  case  in  all 
Protestant  churches  that  still  retain  their  doctrinal  standards. 
Or  one  may  minister  to  a  church  that  has  no  enforced  or  en- 
forceable standards,  as  in  the  Baptist  or  Congregational  com- 
munions. Or  one  may  accept  the  doctrinal  statements  of  his 
theological  school  or  teacher.  Or  he  may  formulate  his  own 
statements  of  doctrine.  They  need  not  bear  the  mark  of 
ecclesiastical  authority  or  even  of  church  consensus.  Doctrinal 
and  dogmatic  preacliing  may  indeed  be  identical.  And  why 
should  one  object?  It  does  not  injure  a  doctrine,  or  render  it 
less  true  or  valuable  or  worthy  of  acceptance  that  it  has  been 
formally  accepted  by  a  church,  and  so  become  its  dogma,  pro- 
vided its  acceptance  by  its  members  is  not  enforced  uncon- 
ditionally or  rather  is  not  enforced  at  all  ecclesiastically,  or 
by  the  church  as  claiming  to  be  a  doctrinal  authority.  Why 
should  one  be  afraid  of  the  word  dogma,  so  long  as  it  stands 
for  the  right  thing,  and  is  used  in  the  correct  sense?  But  doc- 
trinal  preaching   need   not   lie   dogmatic,   even   in   this   mild 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  175 

sense.     And  in  g^eneral  it  is  better  to  discriminate  between 
them. 

Moreover,  doctrinal  preaching  need  not  be  rationalistic  or 
speculative  preaching.  Elements  of  speculation  doubtless  must 
enter  into  all  doctrinal  preaching.  To  speculate  is  to  examine, 
to  investigate.  It  involves  analysis,  comparison,  classification, 
arrangement  of  the  data  of  a  subject.  Out  of  these  data,  an- 
alyzed, sifted,  collected,  classified,  hypotheses,  or  provisional 
theories  are  formulated,  /.  e.,  rational  statements  of  the  results 
of  investigation.  Then  these  provisional  theories  are  put  into 
relatively  permanent  form  and  they  are  ready  for  use.  In  our 
investigation  of  theologic  truth  we  follow,  or  should  follow 
substantially  this  method.  In  all  this  there  is  speculation. 
Even  in  presenting  the  results  of  investigation,  and  it  is  re- 
sults that  the  preacher  does  present,  whether  by  the  inductive  or 
deductive  method,  and  the  deductive  is  generally  the  preacher's 
method,  and  in  presenting  proofs  and  illustrations  of  the  truth 
of  the  doctrine  discussed,  one  enters  measurably  upon  a  specu- 
lative, a  rationalizing  process.  In  a  word  speculation  is  in- 
volved in  all  rational  investigation.  But  this  is  not  what  we 
mean  when  we  speak  of  speculative  preaching.  We  mean  that 
the  preacher  bases  his  teaching  upon  inadequate  data,  data  of 
revelation,  or  of  experience,  or  of  fact.  i.  e.,  he  rationalizes 
or  he  theorizes  too  much,  i.  e.,  his  theories  are  not  adequately 
verified.  Thev  are  hypotheses.  Too  large  an  element  of  un- 
certainty is  thus  introduced  into  his  work.  In  a  word  when 
we  say  that  a  preacher  is  too  speculative,  we  mean  that  he  is 
an  un-Biblical  rationalist  or  an  irrational  or  visionary  theorist, 
who  has  no  respect  for  his  data  of  facts.  Such  preaching  is 
of  course  unreliable,  as  being  based  on  too  much  unverified 
theorizing.  But  doctrinal  preaching  need  not  and  should  not 
be  speculative  in  this  objectionable  sense.  Preaching,  of 
course,  can  never  be  infallible,  could  not  be  though  based  on 
an  inerrant  book.  Any  human  statement  of  doctrine,  though  it 


176  THE   WORK    OF  THE   PREACHER 

mig[ht  have  behind  it  the  authority  of  an  infaUible  book,  or 
an  infaUihlc  church,  would  have  elements  of  imperfection,  un- 
less the  teacher  were  himself  infallible.  Statements  of  doctrine 
can  only  be  approximately  correct,  and  need  revision.  But 
doctrines  based  on  sound  Biblical  data,  and  supported  by  ade- 
fjuatc  argfimients,  i.e.,  by  appeal  for  verification  to  rational, 
ethical  and  spiritual  experience,  can  not  be  called  rationalistir 
or  speculative  in  any  objectionable  sense.  Nor  can  the  preaching 
of  such  doctrines  be  speculative  in  any  objectionable  sense. 

H.  Methods  of  Doctrinal  Preaching 
The  object  of  the  sermon  determines  its  method  of  trer^t- 
ment.  or  its  class  or  type.  In  all  preaching  of  this  sort,  the 
ultimate  aim  is  the  same.  But  in  reaching  this  the  immediate 
aim  may  vary.  The  immediate  object  may  be  simply  to  sup- 
port the  doctrine,  assuming  no  opposition  and  no  antagonist. 
Or  the  object  may  be  to  defend  it,  assuming  that  it  is 
challenged  and  needs  defense.  Or  the  object  may  be  to 
attack  the  contrasted  error,  and  the  antagoni'^t  who 
supports  it.  assuming  the  necessity  of  fighting  down 
error  in  order  to  establish  the  truth.  The  ultimate  aim 
is  the  same.  It  is  to  convince  and  j^ersuade  and  thereby  to 
establish  truth  and  character  in  and  by  the  truth.  Rut  the  vary- 
ing methods  yield  three  types  of  doctrinal  discourse.  It  gives 
us  the  sermon  that  is  positive  and  declarative  in  method,  one 
that  is  defeiisi\c  and  .ipologetic  and  one  that  is  aggressive  and 
polemical. 

I.  In  the  declarative  method  the  aim  is  simply  to  interpret, 
and  to  sui)[)ort  by  interpretation,  the  doctrine  discussed.  It  is 
an  expository,  not  a  defensive  or  belligerent  task.  It  assumes 
that  the  doctrine  is  obscure  in  itself,  or  in  its  evidences  atid 
only  needs  interpretation,  and  the  support  thus  furnished.  It 
docs  not  assume  that  the  truth  of  it  is  generally  challenged  or 
doubted  or  denied,  or  if  it  does  assume  it.  the  assumption  is 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  177 

obscured.    (Jf  course  there  are  Christian  doctrines  enough  that 
are  denied.     But  there  are  many  that  are  simply  ignored,  or 
neglected  or  forgotten  or  if  accepted  at  all  accepted  in  a  con- 
ventional, matter-of-course  manner.     To  assume  or  to  give 
credence  to  the  assumption  that  people  are  spending  their  time 
and  energy  in  fighting  all  the  great  truths  of  Christianity  might 
put  both  hearer  and  preacher  in  an  objectionably  defensive  or 
antagonistic  or  polemical  temper  of  mind.     There  may  be  a 
certain  strength  in  the  assumption,  or  even  in  the  seeming  of 
the  assumption,  that  they  are  not  and  can  not  be  successfully 
contested.     There  may  be  apologetic  value  in  ignoring  such 
denial  when  it  is  known  to    exist.     The    doctrinal    preacher 
should  be  adroit  and  skillful  as  well  as  sincere.    It  is  especially 
important  to  recognize  the  fact  that  some  important  truths  of 
Christianity  are  forgotten  or  neglected  or  ignored,  rather  than 
questioned,   denied  or  rejected.       People  sometimes  suppose 
themselves  to  reject  what  they  simply  ignore.     In  periods  of 
religious  controversy,  doctrinal  preaching  will  necessarily  take 
the  apologetic  or  polemic  form.     Too  much  of  it  has  taken 
the  latter  form.    But  controversy  subsides,  and  once  contested 
truths  fall  into  neglect.     They  are  either  accepted  as  a  matter 
of  orthodox    course  or  are    set  aside    as  of    no  practical    or 
theoretic  significance  or  importance  and  become  objects  of  in- 
difTerence.     Other  truths  come  into  discussion.     This  is  the 
case  in  our  own    day.     A  large    class  of  valuable    Christian 
truths  are  simply  ignored.    There  is  no  interest  in  them.     It  is 
these  truths  that  may  well  be  treated  in  the  expository  or  de- 
clarative method.     Their  chief  need,  or  men's  chief  need  with 
respect  to  them  is  interpretation  and  evidence.  Put  before  men 
in  a  positive,  declarative  manner,  they  may  win  the  readier 
response  and  acceptance.     There   is   no  apologetic   interest 
hostile  to  them,  and  when  once  their  practical  sit^nificance 
for  the  Christian  life  becomes  clear,  they  may  be  the  more 
easily  welcomed.  There  is  a  large  group  of  teachings  centering 


178  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

in  the  supremacy,  priority  and  sovereignty  of  God,  that  were 
once  prominent  in  theology  and  in  i)reaching.  These  truths 
might  well  be  resuscitated  in  new  form.  They  might  be  pre- 
sented as  topics  in  Biblical  theology  and  interpreted  in  the 
clearer  light  of  present  knowledge,  'ihe  minds  of  people  are 
no  longer  set  against  them  in  a  controversial  interest.  Their 
value  for  the  Christian  life  may  easily  be  presented  and  made 
manifest  and  all  this  would  prove  favorable  to  their  practical 
acceptance.  There  are  a  large  number  of  Christian  teachings 
that  might  well  be  presented  in  the  same  way.  The  doctrine 
of  sacred  Scripture  or  phases  of  the  doctrine,  the  doctrine  of 
future  probation  and  future  punishment  might  well  be  dis- 
cussed in  this  way.  H  one  permits  himself  to  assume  a  mani- 
fest apologetic  attitude  in  his  investigation  and  discussion  par- 
ticularly of  subjects  about  which  there  is  a  good  deal  of  sensi- 
tiveness, he  may  easily  become  an  advocate,  when  he  should 
be  only  an  interpreter.  He  will  have  a  case  to  make  out,  rather 
than  a  truth  to  expound.  The  traditionalist  easily  becomes  an 
adversary,  and  the  apologist  a  polemist.  A  preacher  of  this 
sort  may  stir  up  and  involve  in  difticulty  about  as  many  ques- 
tions as  he  answers  and  may  perplex  about  as  many  minds  as 
he  convinces.  There  is  some  basis  for  the  claim  that  the  de- 
fense of  the  great  truths  of  Christianity  may  well  be  left  not 
wholly  of  course,  but  to  a  considerable  extent  to  the  theological 
school  and  the  religious  press  and  that  the  pulpit  may  well  give 
itself,  not  wholly  of  course,  but  largely,  to  the  non-polemical, 
or  even  non-apologetic  method  of  interpreting  and  inculcating 
them.  .And  yet  there  is  place  and  demand  for  apologetic 
preaching. 

2.  This  brings  us  to  the  second  method.  The  demand  for 
apologetic  preaching  is  involved  in  the  broader  question  of  the 
demand  for  Christian  apology  in  general.  Christianity  has  been, 
is  and  will  be  attacked.  Should  it  be  defended?  And  is  a 
theory  of  defense  needed?    That  is,  is  that  branch  of  theology 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  179 

known  as  apologetics  needed?  Is  it  of  any  value?  There  can 
hardly  be  a  doubt  as  to  the  proper  answer.  Apologetics  is  a 
legitimate,  a  necessary  branch  of  theology.  The  theological 
school  at  least  needs  it.  But  does  the  pulpit  need  it?  It  is 
sometimes  assumed  that  it  does  not.  Let  the  school  and  the 
press  keep  in  hand  the  work  of  defense,  but  let  the  pulpit  pre- 
sent the  claims  of  Christianity  in  a  positive,  affirmative  way ; 
let  it  deal  with  the  beneficent  results  of  Christianity.  This  is 
all  the  defense  needed  from  the  pulpit.  Christianity  can  make 
its  own  defense,  if  it  is  well  presented  and  well  exemplified. 
But  if  the  pulpit  does  nothing  more  than  point  to  the  effects  of 
Christianity  it  defends  it.  It  is  one  of  the  most  effective 
methods  of  apology.  And  the  pulpit  needs  it.  The  world 
needs  it.  But  it  needs  more.  Let  us,  then,  consider  this  more 
fully. 

(i)  Christianity  has  been  attacked  and  it  has  been  suc- 
cessfully defended.  What  might  have  been  the  result,  without 
such  defense  is  hardly  uncertain.  It  would  have  been  crushed 
out,  as  Protestantism  was,  or  nearly  so,  in  France.  Contro-  *^ 
versy  is  often  bad,  but  it  is  simply  a  historic  necessity.  The 
history  of  Christianity  and  of  the  church  is  largely  one  of  con- 
troversy. Our  Lord  defended  not  only  himself,  but  his  teach- 
ings, and  his  teachings  more  vigorously  than  himself.  The 
sermon  on  the  mount  is  an  apologetic  discourse.  It  is  a  de- 
fense as  well  as  exposition  of  his  conception  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  as  a  kingdom  of  personal  righteousness,  in  contrast  with 
the  conception  of  the  conventional  religionists  of  his  day. 
The  parables  are  apologetic,  often  polemical.  They  stung 
the  Pharisees  to  the  quick,  because  they  saw  and  felt 
that  they  were  attacked,  and  they  set  themselves  against 
him.  They  are  a  most  adroit,  truly  oriental  and  mightily 
effective  method  of  defense  and  attack.  The  Apostles 
defended  not  only  themselves  but  their  teachings  and 
their    religion.        Against    heathenism    thev    defended    their 


i8o  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

religion.  Against  Judaism  they  defended  their  peculiar 
teachings.  Paul  had  and  defended  what  he  called  "My 
Gospel."  In  the  Roman  and  Galatian  letters,  he  defends 
Christianity  as  a  universal  religion  against  Judaism,  a  religion 
of  narrow  particularism,  of  external  legal  ceremony  and  of 
special  privilege,  in  the  Eplie>ian  and  Colossian  letters  he  de- 
fends a  spiritual  universalism  against  materialistic  speculations 
that  would  limit  and  degrade  it.  In  the  Corinthian  letters  he 
defends  not  only  his  apostolic  calling,  but  important  Christian 
teachings,  like  the  Resurrection,  that  had  been  assailed.  The 
letter  to  the  Hebrews  is  an  apology,  a  defense  of  Christian  uni- 
versalism. Christianity  is  Judaism  completed,  sublimated  in  the 
form  of  a  universal  and  absolute  spiritual  religion.  The  pre- 
scriptions of  the  pastoral  epistles  are  apologetic,  largely  polem- 
ical. There  is  a  quasi-apologetic  element  even  in  the  Gospels. 
They  are  each  adjusted  to  some  interest  in  a  semi-apologetic 
manner.  The  "tendenz"  theory  as  applied  to  the  book  of  the 
Acts  is  not  without  basis.  It  is  an  advocacy  of  Pauline  Chris- 
tianity. It  intends  to  magnify  it.  The  work  of  the  post-Apos- 
tolic church  was  largely  apologetic.  It  carried  on  the  defense, 
which  the  Apostolic  church  had  begun  against  Judaism  on  the 
one  side  and  heathenism  on  the  other.  The  medieval  church 
defended  Christianity  with  scholastic  weapons  and  the  schol- 
astic awakening  was,  in  the  church,  largely  an  awakening  to 
the  rational  defense  of  its  Christianity.  The  Reformation 
period  was  one  not  only  of  apology  but  of  polemic.  The  post- 
Reformation  in  its  defense  recalled  once  more  the  scholastic 
method  and  with  modifications  it  held  its  own  for  more  than 
two  centuries.  It  strongly  influenced  the  preaching  of  English 
and  Scotch  Protestantism  and  reached  on  even  into  the  last 
century  in  the  preaching  of  New  England.  Recall  the  con- 
troversies of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  and  of 
the  American  churches  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth. 
We  have  our  apology  today,  but  of  a  greatly  modified  char- 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  i8i 

acter.  And  we  have  our  science  of  Apologetics.  It  is  some- 
times treated  as  a  branch  of  dogmatic  theology,  and  properly. 
Thus  largely  in  the  United  States.  It  enters  into  historic  theol- 
ogy and  necessarily.  And  sometimes  it  is  a  branch  of  prac- 
tical theology.  Thus  in  Scotland.  Here  Apologetics  is  brought 
into  connection  with  homiletics.  Apology  is  assumed  as  nec- 
essary for  the  work  of  preaching.  No  preacher  is  properly 
trained  for  the  pulpit  who  is  not  trained  in  apology.  This  may 
be  overdone.  Perhaps  it  has  been.  But  the  basis  of  the  as- 
sumption is  correct.  That  the  science  of  Apologetics  is  thus 
assigned  to  different  branches  of  theology  may  suggest  its 
significance.  But  the  point  in  hand  is  that  as  Christianity  has 
been  and  must  have  been  defended,  so  will  it  and  must  it  be  in 
the  future. 

(2)  The  conditions  of  our  own  age  accentuate  the  demand 
for  apologetic  preaching.  Consider,  for  example,  the  charac- 
ter of  American  life.  It  has  all  the  faults  and  is  exposed  to 
all  the  dangers  of  an  extreme  democratic  life.  Speech  is  free, 
libidinously  and  anarchistically  free.  The  press  is  free,  often 
vulgarly  and  vilely  free.  Attacks  on  religion  are  freely  bruited 
about  and  popularized.  The  American  people  are  a  reading 
people,  and  everybody  knows  the  latest  scepticism  and 
heathenism.  The  same  conditions  may  exist  in  other  coun- 
tries, but  hardly  to  the  same  extent,  and  the  relation  of  the 
pulpit  to  the  general  public  is  somewhat  different  in  this  coun- 
try. Now,  how  shall  the  democratizing  of  criticism  and 
scepticism  and  negation  be  counterworked,  if  not  by  the 
pulpit? 

Consider  also  the  insidious  character  of  this  spirit  of  ne- 
gation. The  prevailing  naturalism  of  our  day  is  almost  effu- 
sively religious  in  its  tone.  It  is  sentimental,  rather  than 
scornful,  as  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  century.  It  wishes  to  be 
regarded  as  preeminently  the  friend  of  genuine  Christianity, 
i.  e.,  the  Christianity  which  it  regards  as  in  harmony  with  the 


i82  THE   WORK    OF  THE   PREACHER 

culture  of  the  age.  It  simply  wishes  to  relieve  it  of  its  sur- 
plus beliefs,  which  are  assumed  to  be  stumbling  blocks  in  men's 
way.  They  are  external  to  Christianity,  have  grown  with  its 
later  development  and  do  not  belong  to  the  original  stock.  No 
man  can  deny  the  sincerity  of  this  naturalistic  spirit,  nor  ques- 
tion the  genuine  religious  character  of  many  of  its  subjects. 
The  various  forms  of  rationalism  claim  to  be  preeminently 
patrons  of  a  rational,  intelligent  and  intelligible  Christianity, 
such  as  the  progress  of  the  age  demands. 

Agnosticism  would  have  us  understand  that  it  exercises  pre- 
eminently the  virtues  of  religious  moilesty  and  reverence  and 
truthfulness,  and  self  poise.  It  magnifies  the  importance  of  a 
religion  that  respects  verifiable  facts  and  is  satisfied  only  with 
verifiable  truth.  It  is  the  critic  and  sworn  enemy  of  all  rash- 
ness and  immodesty  in  the  concerns  of  religion. 

Pantheism  is  devout  and  human  and  aesthetic,  even  if  non- 
moral.  Even  atheism  has  a  respectful  tone  and  habit  and  finds 
a  place  for  subjective  religion.  It  develops  reverence  for  hu- 
manity and  it  sentimentally  worships  "our  Father  man."  This 
insidious  character,  as  it  may  be  called,  however  unconscious 
of  deceit,  should  be  recognized,  and  it  should  be  met  by  a  type 
of  apologetics  that  will  adjust  itself  to  its  methods  and  skill- 
fully counter-work  it. 

Consider  further  the  somewhat  concessive  teiulency  of  those 
who  would  be  regarded  as  liberal-minded  men  towards  the 
critical  and  disintegrating  temper  of  our  time.  Men  affect 
broad  views  of  religious  and  theological  (juestions.  They  are 
inclined,  therefore,  to  make  generous  and  liberal  concessions 
to  the  agnostic  and  destructive  spirit  and  they  are  likely  to 
over-do  it.  Concessions,  of  course,  must  be  made,  for  criti- 
cism has  scored  many  important  points.  But  there  is  a  limit. 
And  the  fact  that  we  are  obliged  to  concede  so  much  may  well 
put  us  on  our  guard,  lest  we  give  away  our  whole  case.  Wi- 
nced bracing.     We  must  make  concessions  to  naturalism,  but 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  183 

we  may  and  should  do  it  without  giving  away  our  super- 
naturahsm.  Naturalism  begins  with  a  high  assumption,  the 
assumption  of  the  impossibility  or  rather  of  the  unbelievable 
possibility  of  miracles.  But  why  may  not  the  supernaturalist 
have  his  assumption  ?  Sober-minded,  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical thinkers  among  naturalists  concede  in  fact  that,  from 
the  theistic  point  of  view,  miracles  are  not  antecedently  im- 
possible but  are  even  easily  thinkable.  Why  then  may  not 
the  Christian  theist  assume,  and  reasonably,  that  as  related 
to  the  unique  personality  of  Jesus  Christ,  miracles  are  ante- 
cedently probable  and  are  certainly  easily  thinkable.  The 
Christian  theist  surely  has  as  much  ground  for  his  assumption 
of  probability  as  the  agnostic  for  his  concession  of  possibility. 
Consider,  moreover,  the  needs  of  the  practical  life  of  the 
church  in  our  day.  Without  positive  preaching  the  church  will 
suffer,  and  a  careless  habit  of  mind  with  respect  to  the  grounds 
of  Christian  belief  and  the  basis  of  defense  for  Christianity 
will  inevitably  appear  in  a  lack  of  positive  preaching.  Such 
preaching  will  be  over-concessive.  It  will  leave  the  impression 
of  a  laissez  faire  habit  of  mind  and  of  general  uncertainty 
about  vital  questions.  And  who  can  doubt  the  result  of  this 
upon  the  practical  life  of  the  church,  and  especially  upon  its 
missionary  interests.  An  era  of  general  unsettlement  and  of 
uncertainty  with  respect  to  the  great  facts  and  truths  of  Chris- 
tianity would  be  sure  to  result  in  a  serious  loss  of  missionary 
life.  Conceptions  and  statements  of  truth  of  course  change. 
Apologetic  methods  change,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  missionary  work  of  the  church  calls  for  a  better  apologetic 
than  any  to  which  it  has  entrusted  itself  in  times  past.  But 
no  apologetic  at  all  means  failure  of  missionary  life.  No  man 
needs  so  good  an  apologetic,  particularly  so  good  a  theodicy  as 
a  missionary.  A  large  part  of  his  work  must  be  apologetic  as 
related  to  the  difficulties  and  objections  that  are  brought 
against  the  religion  he  advocates.    But  the  church  at  home  as 


i84  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

well  as  the  missionary  at  the  front  needs  a  positive  tone  in  the 
preacher  for  the  bracing  of  its  practical  life. 

3.  In  defending  the  truth,  or  what  is  regarded  as  such, 
it  is  sometimes  necessary  to  attack  the  opposing  error.  By  ex- 
posing the  falseness  of  its  opposite  tiie  truth  may  be  seen  in  a 
clearer  light  and  its  value  may  be  enhanced  by  disclosing  the 
mischievous  character  of  error.  There  is  a  place,  therefore, 
for  the  polemic  and  in  a  modified  form  even  for  the  philippic 
in  the  pulpit.  It  is  conceivable  that  a  time  might  come  when 
there  would  be  demanded  a  vigorous  onset  upon  the  grosser 
forms  of  error,  intellectual  as  well  as  moral.  If  one  were  to 
attempt  it,  he  would  better  make  thorough  work  of  it.  But  it 
should  be  rarely  attempted.  There  has  been  too  much  polem- 
ical preaching  and  of  the  bad-tempered  sort.  It  may  have 
been  of  some  value,  but  it  has  done  much  harm  and  the  evil 
as  well  as  good  results  remain.  One  may  indeed  preach  polem- 
ically in  a  generous,  manly  and  even  thoroughly  gracious 
manner,  and  if  we  are  to  have  it  at  all,  this  is  the  sort  needed. 
But  we  best  meet  the  temper  of  our  time  by  the  non-pulcmic 
habit.  The  attitude  of  opponents  in  our  day  is  genial.  The 
respectable  critic  cherishes  the  non-polemical  temper.  A  man 
like  Robert  Ingersoll  is  exceptional.  He  is  an  anachronism. 
He  belongs  to  the  vulgar  crowd  of  scoffers  common  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  X'iolent  and  vulgar  attacks  are  not  tlie 
fashion.  The  tone  is  patronizing  rather  than  polemical.  The 
preacher  should  adjust  himself  to  this  temper  and  tone. 

Moreover  the  spirit  of  the  church  is  in  general  hostile  to 
this  method.  It  is  catholic  and  tolerant  in  so  far  as  it  is  in- 
telligent and  the  impression  is  widely  prevalent  that  polemical 
preaching  fails  to  realize  its  object.  Men  are  inclined  to  look 
for  the  truth  that  lurks  behind  error,  far  more  so  than  was 
once  the  case.  The  best  modern  preaching  follows  this 
method. 

But  the  chief  objection  against  polemical  preaching  is  tfiat  it 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  185 

is  likely  to  be  unjust.     One  becomes  an  advocate  who  has  a 
case  to  make  out,  and  ceases  to  be  a  reliable  interpreter.     The 
advocate  easily  becomes  the  special  pleader.     He  is  identified 
with  his  case.   The  opponent  easily  becomes  a  personal  enemy. 
He  IS  identified  with  the  error  he  advocates.     It  is  the  more 
important  therefore,  by  all  legitimate  and  even  illegitimate 
means,  to  make  out  a  case  against  him.    In  such  condition  of 
mind  fair  treatment  is  impossible.     No  one  can  do  justice  to 
what  he  regards  as  an  error,  if  he  has  no  care  to  get  at  the 
truth  that  lurks  behind  it.     No  one  can  do  justice  to  an  op- 
ponent, if  he  has  no  care  to  get  his  point  of  view  and  no  moral 
abihty  or  perhaps  only  a  crippled  mental  ability  to  interpret 
what  the  opponent  is  trying  to  express.    The  polemist  is  likely 
to  make  a  personal  matter  of  his  advocacy.     It  is  his  cause 
quite  as  much  as  the  cause  of  truth.     Hence  originate  arro- 
gance and  ill  temper.     The  very  word  has  become  suggestive 
of  the  fighting  spirit  and  of  bad  temper.     It  is  a  battle   it  is  a 
war,  in  which  this    defender  of  the    faith  is  engaged,    not    of 
truth  with  error,  but  between  two  men  or  two  parties      The 
mfluence  on  the  men  and  hardly  less  on  the  cause  of  truth  is 
bad. 

III.    The  Importance  of  Doctrinal  Preaching 
Its  importance  as  a  type  of  homiletic  product  may  be  con- 
sidered from  three  points  of  view,  those  of  substance,  form 
and  tone. 

r.  The  value  of  doctrinal  preaching  as  related  to  its  subject 
matter. 

(i)  Consider  its  apologetic  value,  its  value  in  getting  the 
important  truths  and  facts  of  Christianity  definitely  before  the 
minds  of  men.  It  clears  up  difficulties.  It  is  said  that  men 
know  more  about  Christianity  than  they  are  willing  to  appro- 
priate and  apply.  This  is  measurably  true.  Moral  rather  than 
mental  perversity  often  blocks  their  way  to  the  light.     But  if 


i86  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

this  dictum  implies  or  is  meant  to  imply  that  those  who  re- 
ject Christianity  always  have  adequately  clear  conceptions  of 
it  and  do  not  need  to  know  more  about  it  in  order  to  act  in- 
telligently with  respect  to  it,  it  is  false.  The  fact  is  that  the 
great  realities  of  Christianity  arc  often  invested  with  much 
obscurity.  A  well-defined  conception  and  clear  statement  of 
them  and  of  the  evidence  on  which  they  rest,  are  none  too 
common,  even  among  intelligent  and  educated  people  of 
virtuous  and  honorable  lives.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  a  min- 
ister may,  without  being  aware  of  it,  be  surrounded  by  those 
who  are  silently  perplexed  by  difficulties  that  may  result  from 
wrong  or  inadequate  conceptions  of  Christianity.  They  reject 
it.  or  at  least  many  of  its  truths,  because  they,  like  the  late 
Professor  Huxley,  have  found  no  satisfactory  way  of  meeting 
their  difficulties.  Preachers  in  our  day  have  to  deal  with 
people  who  do  not  know  Christianity  adequately.  Wrong 
statements  of  truth  may  be  responsible  for  this.  A  wrong 
statement  of  a  truth  or  fact  that  it  declared  to  be  fundamental 
may  work  immense  harm.  Much  of  a  preacher's  work,  and 
perhaps  more  in  our  day  than  ever  before,  consists  in  removing 
difficulties  of  various  sorts  that  block  or  are  assumed  to  block 
men's  way  into  God's  Kingdom.  Among  these  difficulties  in- 
adequate or  perverted  conceptions  of  Christian  truth  may  be 
most  serious  in  their  consequences.  The  value  to  a  preacher 
in  such  a  day  as  this  of  a  good  apologetic  method,  especially 
the  value  of  a  good  theodicy,  the  value  of  a  worthy  conception 
and  statement  of  doctrines  that  are  held  to  be  fundamental. 
can  not  be  overestimated.  The  need  of  familiarity  with  the 
mental  perplexities  of  men  and  of  a  training  that  will  fit  one 
to  meet  these  pcri)Iexitics  is  also  obvious. 

Doctrinal  preaching  also  aids  men  in  discriminating  between 
what  is  primary  and  what  is  secondary  in  Christian  truth.  It 
will  expound  what  is  i)rimary  and  will  show  men  how  to  es- 
timate at  its  true  value  what  is  secondary.    And  so  when  theo- 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  187 

logical  discussions  arise  in  the  churches,  as  they  have  arisen 
and  will  again,  and  when  men  are  likely  to  be  thrown  into  a 
panic,  those  who  are  grounded  in  what  is  primary  and  funda- 
mental will  be  able  to  estimate  the  significance  of  the  dis- 
cussion and  will  know  how  to  judge  its  important  features. 
Much  doctrinal  preaching  in  days  past  has  failed  to  discrim- 
inate between  what  is  primary  and  what  is  secondary  or  even 
to  recognize  the  existence  of  such  a  distinction.  Relatively 
unimportant  doctrines  have  been  thrust  into  the  foreground 
and  magnified  as  of  fundamental  importance,  upon  which  sal- 
vation itself  may  depend.  Preaching  based  on  controversial 
creeds  is  quite  likely  thus  to  err.  The  controversial  creed  lacks 
theological  perspective.  Preaching  based  on  such  creeds  has 
a  like  disturbance  of  balance.  Hence  the  value  of  creeds  that 
belong  to  non-polemical  periods  or  that  have  been  sifted  and 
revised  and  made  more  catholic  in  substance  and  tone.  Such 
creeds  will  summarize  the  primary  articles  of  the  Christian 
faith.  It  is  a  desirable  thing  for  the  preacher  to  study  such 
formularies  with  reference  to  pulpit  discussion. 

Such  preaching  begets  confidence  in  the  reasonableness  of 
Christianity.  It  will,  at  least,  aim  at  this,  and  if  intelligent 
preaching,  it  will  realize  its  aim.  Rationality  is  not  rational- 
ism. Rationality  becomes  rationalism,  and  the  rational  be- 
comes the  rationalistic  only  by  a  one-sided  use  of  reason.  A 
broadly  rational  estimate  of  Christianity  will  take  into  account 
Its  adaptation  to  the  whole  complex  nature  of  man.  not  to  his 
intelligence  alone.  It  will  find  its  verification  and  vindication 
not  merely  in  the  conceptual  or  speculative  understanding,  but 
in  the  moral  and  religious  nature  as  well.  The  word  reason 
covers  more  ground  and  has  a  fuller  content  than  it  once  had. 
But  religion  must  commend  itself  to  intelligence  as  such. 
Otherwise  it  will  not  win  acceptance.  Intelligence  has  been 
active  in  the  domain  of  religion  for  many  centuries.  Doctrinal 
preaching  will  respect  the  results  of  such  activity  in  religious 


i88  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

investigation.  It  assumes  that  human  intelligence  may  venture 
to  deal  with  the  facts  of  revelation  and  of  religious  experi- 
ence and  bring  back  valid  results.  It  assumes  that  what  com- 
mends itself  to  moral  and  religious  manhood  will  somShow 
become  domesticated  in  intelligence,  and  that  what  commends 
itself  to  sound  mental  judgment  will  also  commend  itself  to 
the  heart  and  conscience  and  win  assent.  Science  is  as  im- 
portant in  the  domain  of  religion  as  in  any  sphere  where 
thought  is  active.  It  has  secured  results  that  are  of  great  value 
to  the  church,  and  for  a  minister  to  cherish  and  express  con- 
tempt for  the  science  with  which  his  profession  deals  is  dis- 
tinctly discreditable  to  his  intelligence  and  his  moral  manhood. 
It  is  a  mark  of  ignorance  or  perversity  or  both  and  is  a  bad 
habit.  Of  course,  the  sphere  of  truth  is  vastly  larger  than 
the  sphere  of  doctrine.  No  statement  of  doctrine  can  be  final. 
But  doctrine  has  its  place  in  the  pulpit,  defective  though  its 
statements  may  be. 

(2)  Note  its  indirect  value  for  purposes  of  strong  im- 
pression as  well  as  definite  instruction.  It  deals  with  a  quality 
of  teaching  that  edifies,  enriches  and  ennobles  character.  It 
grapples  with  vital  questions.  They  are  the  bottom  questions 
on  which  a  religion  that  claims  to  be  absolute  and  universal 
rests.  We  are  exalted  and  ennobled  by  that  which  is  above 
us.  It  is  the  great  truth  that  greatens  both  preacher  and 
hearer.  No  man  can  get  into  a  realm  so  large  and  wealthy 
without  being  enlarged  and  enriched  by  it.  It  intensifies  and 
expands  one's  mental  activities.  It  quickens  the  imagination. 
It  stirs  and  enriches  the  emotional  life.  We  are  in  the  habit 
of  sneering  at  scholasticism.  Hut  with  all  its  defects  it  gave 
preaching  a  new  and  strong  impulse.  The  pulpit  needed  a 
new  instrument.  It  found  it  in  scholastic  logic  and  it  has  had 
a  very  powerful  influence  in  various  ways  upon  the  preaching 
of  the  church.  It  has  been  a  very  productive  type  of  preach- 
ing and  has  been  wide  in  its  scope.     Puritan  preaching,  as  a 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  189 

survival  of  the  scholastic  method,  was  doubtless  rhetorically 
defective.  But  in  its  way  it  was  powerful  preaching.  What- 
ever else  may  be  said  about  it,  it  was  not  weak.  It  handled 
great  themes,  and  its  processes  of  reasoning  were  close  and 
cogent.  No  one  can  even  read  the  product  without  being 
strongly  impressed  by  it.  A  large  theme  always  opens  deeply 
and  broadly  in  the  hands  of  a  strong  and  well-trained  man. 
It  is  inexhaustible.  The  capacity  of  such  a  theme  for  in- 
ference or  deduction  is  evidence  of  its  productiveness.  Much 
remains  to  be  said  after  the  main  discussion  is  ended.  The 
richest  practical  suggestions  are  secured  by  tracing  the  bearings 
of  a  great  Christian  truth  and  it  is  precisely  the  opening  up  of 
this  truth  in  its  doctrinal  aspects  that  adequately  disclo.ses  the 
practical  lines  along  which  it  runs.  The  preacher  who  enters 
this  field  with  the  best  results  of  modern  training  and  who 
applies  the  modern  homiletic  methods  will  find  his  whole  man- 
hood enriched. 

Moreover,  it  is  this  type  of  preaching  that  furnishes  a  basis 
for  effective  ethical  preaching.  No  complete  system  of  Chris- 
tian ethics  is  possible  in  entire  independence  of  Christian  dog- 
matics. Christian  doctrine  furnishes  a  basis  for  fully  devel- 
oped Christian  ethics.  In  like  manner  doctrinal  preaching  fur- 
nishes a  basis  for  the  best  sort  of  ethical  preaching  of  the 
Christian  type.  How  can  one  present  effectively  any  duty  or 
any  virtue  or  any  law  or  any  supreme  aim  of  life  in  entire 
independence  of  the  fundamental  truth  or  teaching  or  prin- 
ciple on  which  it  rests?  When  we  speak  of  a  moral  life  from 
the  Christian  point  of  view,  whether  as  related  to  the  supreme 
aim  of  tliat  life  as  its  highest  good,  or  to  its  governing  law.  or 
to  its  duties,  or  to  its  virtues,  we  pre-suppose  the  revelation  of 
Christ  as  related  to  those  factors  in  our  conception  of  a  Chris- 
tian moral  life.  And  the  first  thing  to  do  is  to  find  out  what 
that  revelation  is,  t.  e.,  what  its  doctrinal  concepts  are,  its  doc- 
trinal content.    Christianity  is  a  revelation  of  facts  and  truths 


I90  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

that  have  practical  relations  and  applications.  But  in  order 
to  apply  them  we  must  first  know  them.  They  must  be  in- 
vestigated as  teachings  provisionally  at  least,  before  they  can  be 
adequately  conceived  and  stated  in  their  ethical  form,  as  in- 
volving a  supreme  ethical  good  or  a  supreme  ethical  law  or  as 
contaim'ng  ethical  duties  and  virtues,  and  before  they  can  be 
applied  in  the  most  thorough  way  to  character  and  conduct. 
Consider  for  example  the  doctrinal  and  ethical  aspects  of  the 
atonement.  How  can  one  know  in  the  fullest  sense  the  moral 
claims  of  the  atonement  without  knowing  measurably  well  at 
least  what  the  atonement  is?  And  how  can  this  be  known 
without  doctrinal  investigation? 

2.  Consider  the  value  of  doctrinal  preaching  as  related  to 
its  form. 

Doctrinal  preaching  must  be  preeminently  methodical 
L  preaching.  One  must  state  his  truth  clearly  and  exactly,  illus- 
'  trate  it  convincingly  as  well  as  persuasively,  argue  it  cogently, 
and  conduct  the  work  of  proof  in  an  orderly  manner.  Its  suc- 
cess depends  on  the  clearness,  exactness  and  orderliness  of 
method  from  beginning  to  end.  upon  its  unity,  proportion  and 
progress.  Everything  in  its  place  and  the  whole  thing  must 
move  on  to  a  measurably  successful,  if  not  victorious  issue,  or 
collapse  in  humiliating  defeat.  Other  sermons  may  have  a 
certain  sort  or  measure  of  success,  though  they  come  through 
chaos.  But  this  must  be  organized  and  the  builder  must  be 
able  to  look  upon  his  finished  work  and  behold  that  it  is  "very 
good."  No  one  reasons  well  who  reasons  ramblingly.  A 
preacher  of  powerful  imagination  may  set  logic  at  defiance, 
but  his  vocation  h  not  in  the  sphere  of  doctrinal  teaching.  He 
who  undertakes  to  set  a  great  truth  before  the  mind,  lay  bare 
its  foundations,  trace  it  in  its  relations  of  thought,  clear  up  its 
obscurities  and  leave  a  well  defined  conception  of  its  greatness 
and  of  its  reality  must  do  it  methodically. 

But   doctrinal   preaching  has   significance   for   rhetorical   as 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  191 

well  as  structural  form.  I  venture  the  suggestion  that  it  de- 
mands and  tends  to  the  culture  of  three  important  qualities  of 
rhetorical  style  in  the  preacher,  precision,  clearness  and  force. 
As  regards  clearness  and  precision  the  case  is  evident  at  once. 
The  character  and  object  of  the  sermon  exact  preeminently 
upon  these  qualities.  There  are  sermons,  indeed,  of  a  rhetorical 
character  that  do  not  and  need  not  and  perhaps  can  not  be 
marked  by  a  scientific  precision  of  statement.  They  are  pre- 
cise enough  suggestively  to  ansvi^er  the  purpose.  They  are 
clear  without  being  intellectually  exact.  They  are  what  we  call 
suggestive  sermons.  Such  sermons  are,  of  course,  desirable. 
The  largest  part  of  one's  preaching  may  well  be  of  this  sort.  It 
is  quickening  and  helpful  preaching.  But  a  preacher  may  well 
aspire  to  do  more  and  other  than  this.  It  is  questionable 
whether  it  is  well  to  preach  nothing  but  rhetorically  suggestive 
sermons.  It  is  in  fact  a  bad  thing  to  overwork  one's  rhetoric. 
The  understanding,  the  logical  faculties,  need  cultivating  for 
the  work  of  the  pulpit,  and  intellectual  clearness  and  precision 
are  the  qualities  that  result. 

As  regards  vigor  the  case  may  not  at  first  be  quite  so  mani- 
fest. But  it  is  possible  that  clearness  and  precision  may  be 
associated  with  force  and  tributary  to  it.  If  one  states  the 
truth  clearly  and  discriminatingly,  he  is  likely  to  state  it 
strongly.  Men  without  notable  rhetorical  power  have  often 
spoken  with  great  effectiveness.  There  is  cogency  in  clear- 
cut  statements.  The  preaching  of  John  Calvin  in  a  way  illus- 
trated this.  If  the  truth  grips  the  mental  energies  of  a 
preacher,  it  is  pretty  sure  to  stir  some  emotional  interest  and 
this  will  give  energy  to  one's  utterance.  One  may,  indeed,  have 
a  mental,  and  even  an  emotional  interest  in  the  truth  of  a  sort, 
which  may  not  involve  a  moral  and  religious  interest  in  it.  and 
consequently  the  expression  may  lack  moral  and  religious 
cogency.  But  it  is  in  general  difficult  to  see  how  one  is  going 
to  get  the  best  ethical  and  religious  interest  in  the  truth  and 


192  THE  WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

in  its  effects,  without  an  emotional  interest.  And  how  is  one 
goinp  to  pet  the  best  and  most  permanent  emotional  interest 
without  an  intellectual  interest  ?  And  when  one  has  an  ethical 
and  religious  interest  which  involves  also  an  emotional  and 
mental  interest  one  is  likely  to  get  a  comhination  of  clear-cut, 
exact  and  cogent  speech.  It  is  this  combination  that  is  im- 
portant for  intelligent  minds.  A  strong  character  can  not  be 
interested  in  the  truth  without  being  intellectually  interested. 
The  non-masculine  minds  in  the  congregation  should,  of 
course,  not  be  neglected.  They  have  their  claims  on  the 
preacher.  But  the  masculine  mind  must  be  satisfied,  and  this 
is  the  mind  that  is  interested  in  discussion.  H  such  a  mind  is 
carried  into  a  state  of  mental  and  emotional  interest  by  a  clear 
and  vigorous  discussion  of  a  great  truth,  it  will  be  the  more 
likely  to  be  carried  on  and  over  into  moral  and  religious  re- 
sponsiveness to  it. 

Who  can  even  read  C'aiKui  Mozley's  sermon  on  "The  Re- 
versal of  Human  Judgment,"  without  experiencing  this  com- 
bination of  mental,  emotional  and  moral  excitement?  Let  one 
stop  and  analyze  the  effect  and  he  will  sec  how  dependent  the 
emotional  and  ethical  impression  is  on  the  mental.  And  he 
will  also  find  that  all  these  impressions  arc  dependent  on  qual- 
ities in  the  expression  of  the  thought,  which  disclose  the  en- 
ergies of  the  preacher's  personality,  c.  g.,  precision,  clearness, 
terseness  and  energy  r>f  statement.  The  sermon  that  handles 
in  apprnjiriafc  rlu-torical  form  a  great  truth  will  move  strongly 
on,  and  will  grow  as  it  moves  with  ever-increasing  moral 
momentum. 

3.  Doctrinal  i)reacliing  has  rclaticjii  to  the  question  of  tone. 
By  tone  in  preaching,  we  generally  mean  harmony  between  its 
quality  of  thought  or  sentiment  and  its  quality  of  form,  or 
between  the  rhetorical  quality  of  the  text  and  the  discussion. 
But  in  this  type  of  sermon  it  may  receive  a  more  specific  appli- 
cation.    It  may  suggest  harmony  between  the  strong  qualities 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  193 

of  the  subject  matter  and  the  quahties  of  the  style  in  which  it 
is  presented.     It  may  suggest  a  clear,  strong,  resonant,  manly 
tone  of  utterance.    The  pulpit  that  has  no  such  tone  is,  to  use 
Crannier's  expression  "the  bell  that  has  lost  its  clapper."    It 
strikes  no  full,  strong  note.    There  are,  indeed,  minor  notes  in 
preaching,  notes  of  gentleness,  pathos  and  delicacy  of  senti- 
ment, appropriate  to  the  more  gracious  and  delicate  forms  of 
revelation,  that  need  cultivation.    Many  of  the  truths  and  facts 
of    the  Gospel    do  not    call  for    the    masculine    tone    in    the 
preacher.     Preaching  should  be  persuasive  as  well  as  strong. 
But  the  type  of  preaching  in  discussion  must  be  masculine. 
It  must  be    robust  and    virile  in  its    intelligence    and    moral 
tonicity.    To  grapple  with  a  great  truth,  to  discuss  it  discrim- 
inately,  to  support  it  valiantly  against  all  comers,  or  even  to 
interpret  it  non-apologetically  and  non-polemically,  to  carry  it 
up,  in  whatever  manner,  to  the  crown  heights  of  victorious 
argument — this  develops  manly  strength.    This  sort  of  preach- 
ing has  rallied  and  developed  strong  men.     Even  an  ordinary 
man  will  grow  in  the  process.     Doubtless  the  apologetic  value 
of  much  of  the  argumentative  preaching  of  the  church  has 
been  overestimated.     But  as  to  its  value  to  the  preacher  as 
mental  gymnastics  there  can  be  no  doubt.     It  may  not  always 
convince  or  persuade.    This  depends  on  its  method  and  temper 
and  tone.    But  it  must  at  least  command  the  mental  respect  of 
men.       This      has      given      us      a      virile      Christianity      in 
the     pulpit.      We     are     greatly     indebted     to     the     manly 
men  who  have  pushed  Christianity  through  their  strong  and 
virile  minds,  and  have  brought  it  out  in  bold  strong  forms. 
And  the  men  who  after  them  have  undertaken  to  handle  these 
truths  have  in  like  manner  found  themselves  greatened  in  men- 
tal power    and  trained    in  mental    skill.     Think  of  Paul  and 
Augustine,  and  Calvin  and  Edwards,  and  other  great  thinkers 
of  the  Church.     Their  work  was  not  final,  nor  without  grave 
defects.     Much  of  it  will  not  stand.     But  they  developed  the 


194  THR   WORK    OF  THE   PREACHER 

masculine  side  of  Christianity.  The  preacher  of  our  day 
should  remember  that  Christianity  must  rally  and  find  scope 
for  the  mental  energies  of  men  or  in  an  age  of  light  and  knowl- 
edge it  will  be  ignored  or  rejected. 

I  direct  attention  to  a  work  entitled  "The  Decay  of  Modern 
Preaching, ■■  by  Prof.  Maliatfey.*  1  do  not  agree  with  much 
that  the  author  says,  nor  do  I  commend  the  somewhat  dogmatic 
or  over-confident  and  assertive  manner  of  his  utterances.  The 
very  title  of  the  book  is  in  my  judgment  a  misnomer,  and  in- 
volves an  ungrounded  assumption.  It  is  too  sweeping.  But 
some  things  said  by  the  author,  although  they  may  be  extreme 
statements,  are  at  any  rate  worthy  of  serious  consideration. 
He  says:t  "li  in  such  a  time  (as  the  present)  a  preacher 
avoids  dogma,  he  is  not  likely  to  produce  any  permanent  ef- 
fect." Again  ;J  "The  world  has  been  reformed  not  by  preach- 
ing morals,  but  by  preaching  dogma." 

"What  converted  the  world  was  not  the  example  of  Christ's 
life,  but  the  dogma  of  his  death.  His  divinity  and  tlie  atone- 
ment formed  the  real  suijstance  of  early  Christian  preaching." 
These  are  doubtless  extreme  statements.  What  the  auflior 
says  is  not  true  in  the  formal  sense  of  the  earliest  type  of 
Christian  preaching.  His  conception  of  dogma  is  defective, 
and  what  he  says  of  dogma  in  the  sense  in  which  he  under- 
stands it  is  not  strictly  true.  But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that 
there  is  a  solid  basis  of  trutii  in  his  estimate  of  the  value  for 
the  pulpit  of  the  formulated  teachings  of  Christianity.  It  has 
been  rightly  claimed  tiiat  it  is  the  didactic  quality  that  largely 
distinguishes  Christianity  from  other  religions.  It  is  a  re- 
ligion that  can  be  taught,  that  can  be  preached.  It  is  not  pri- 
marily a  teaching,  but  teaching  is  inseparable  from  it  and  dis- 
tinguishes it.     It  is  the  religion  that  has  produced  a  church  and 


♦The  Decay  of  .\l<>(icrn   PnachiiiK. 
tPaRc  7Q. 
tPagc  1 1 6. 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  195 

a  teaching  ministry,  and  it  has  put  an  inteUigent  and  intelligible 
and  communicable  content  of  religious  thought  into  the  hands 
of  its  ministers  to  be  proclaimed  to  the  intelligence  as  well  as 
conscience  and  heart  of  the  world.  Other  religions,  of  course, 
have  their  teachings  and  their  teachers.  But  in  the  importance 
attaching  to  the  truth  and  to  the  teachers  of  truth  Christianity 
is  far  in  advance  of  them.  And  it  is  this  that  differentiates 
pulpit  from  secular  oratory  to  a  large  extent.  All  popular  pub- 
lic speech  has  an  expository  basis.  It  aims  to  convmce  and  it 
ultimates  in  persuasion.  What  distinguishes  the  speech  of  the 
Christian  pulpit  is  the  fact  that  its  basis  is  more  essentially 
didactic.  Christianity  is  taught  in  the  form  of  doctrine.  In  a 
time  when  all  branches  of  knowledge  are  in  process  of  de- 
velopment, the  preacher  should  Ije  able  to  grapple  with  a  sub- 
ject matter  that  belongs  substantively  to  his  profession  and 
should  be  able  to  handle  it  with  skill  and  force.  The  preacher 
who  does  this  will  hold  the  respect  of  the  community  and  will 
make  Christianity  respectable  in  the  eyes  of  thinking  men. 
"We  are  elevated  by  that  which  is  above  us,"  says  Jean  Paul 
Richter,  referring  to  that  type  of  preaching  in  which  the  great 
truths  of  religion  are  presented  to  men. 

IV.  The  Handling  of  the  Doctrinal  Sermon 
The  decline  of  doctrinal  preaching  is  not  wholly  due  to  a 
decline  of  interest  and  of  faith  in  doctrinal  theology,  or  to 
changes  in  theological  belief,  although  this  in  part.  It  is  due 
also  to  the  difficulty  of  handling  it  successfully.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  popular  prejudice  against  it,  due  measurably  per- 
haps to  the  uninteresting  character  of  such  preaching  in  times 
past,  and  the  tastes  of  the  people  are  not  in  line  with  it.  The 
preacher  therefore,  although  he  would  willingly  do  it,  dreads 
to  venture  upon  so  difficult  a  task.  Moreover  it  is  not  an  easy 
sort  of  sermon  to  handle  at  any  time  and  under  the  most  fa- 
vorable conditions. 


196  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

It  is  not  my  purpose,  however,  to  undertake  to  show  how 
this  difficult  task  may  be  made  easy.  That  were  impossible. 
But  I  would  like  to  suggest  some  simple  and  more  or  less 
familiar  considerations  which  the  preacher  in  our  day  may 
well  take  into  account  in  his  etlfort  to  present  doctrinally  the 
great  truths  of  Christianity  to  his  people.  And  these  consid- 
erations relate  both  to  substance  and  form. 

I.  With  respect  to  its  thought-material,  the  doctrinal  ser- 
mon will  be  distinctively  Christian.  It  is,  indeed,  admissible 
to  present  from  the  Christian  pulpit  the  doctrines  of  so-called 
natural  religion  like  the  being  of  God  and  the  immortality  of 
the  soul.  There  may  in  fact  be  an  advantage  in  discussing 
from  the  basis  of  the  testimony  of  the  reason  and  moral  and 
religious  sense  of  men  doctrines  that  find  response  even  in  our 
perverted  human  nature.  It  is  important  to  know  what  may 
be  said  for  these  great  truths  from  a  basis  that  is  independent 
of  their  Christian  evidences  and  of  the  Christian  forms  in 
which  they  appear.  But  is  it  not  on  the  whole  better  to  under- 
take to  show  how  Christianity,  in  its  presentaion  of  these 
truths  interprets  all  best  witnessing  of  our  nature  and  in  fact 
completes  and  perfects  both  the  doctrines  and  the  evidences 
for  them  ?  This  at  least  would  seem  to  be  the  more  appro- 
priate for  the  Christian  pulpit.  Is  it  not  easier  to  show  that 
Christianity  is  natural,  than  to  show  that  nature  is  Christian? 
This,  moreover,  is  in  harmony  with  the  spirit  and  method  of 
our  day.  Christian  thinkers  do  not  attempt  to  draw  a  hard 
and  fast  line  between  natural  and  revealed  religion.  It  seems 
better,  therefore,  for  the  pulpit  to  approach  natural  religion 
through  Christianity. 

The  teaching  of  the  doctrinal  sermon,  if  it  is  to  be  success- 
ful, will  also  be  in  harmony  with  what  is  best  in  the  thinking 
of  our  time  and  with  its  assured  results.  Such  preaciiing  will 
be  positive  in  its  (juality  of  thought.  It  will  seek  to  find  the 
important  working  truth  that  any  statement  of  doctrine  repre- 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  197 

sents.    It  will  recognize  what  is  good  and  true  and  of  practical 
worth  in  the  theology  and  the  polity  of  different  sects,  will  seek 
and  lay  stress  upon  points  of  agreement,  and  will  look  towards 
a  possible  basis  of  co5peration.    The  preacher  who  defends  the 
theology  and  the  polity  of  his  church  in  the  positive,  affirm- 
ative, rather  than  in  the  polemical  manner,  will  show  himself 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  his  age.     The  sectarian 
polemist  is  discredited.    The  preacher  who  is  more  of  an  ad- 
vocate than  of  an  interpreter,  who  makes  the  impression  that 
his  chief  aim  is  to  make  out  his  case,  will  part  company  with 
his  congregation,  if  it  be  an  intelligent  Christian  congregation. 
A  reasonable  adjustment  to  theological  changes  is  especially 
needed  in  any  type  of  successful  doctrinal  preaching  in  our 
day.     In  some  Christian  communions  there  has  ceased  to  be 
a  correspondence  between  modern  preaching,  and   even  be- 
tween the  best  type  of  preaching  in  these  same  communions, 
and  the  substance  of  the  creeds  to  which  they  still  nominally 
hold     When  the  theoretic  and  practical  aspects  of  Christian 
theology  are  out  of  harmony  it  is  always  the  practical  aspect 
that  ultimately  carries  the  day.     The  theological  thinking  of 
our  day  is  strongly  influenced  by  the  realities  of  life,  and  the 
doctrinal  preaching  that  touches  the  realm  of  life  will  freely 
adjust  itself  to  this  habit  of  thought.    The  pulpit  is  summoned 
to  appropriate  the  historic  method  in  dealing  with  the  person 
of  Christ,  and  to  a  large  extent  it  has  heeded  the  summons 
following  this  method  from  the  point  of  departure  of  his 
humanity  and  the  perfection  of  his  human  character,  the  in- 
telligent   preacher   will  build    up  his    conception    of    Christ's 
unique  personality. 

In  the  apologetic  presentation  of  the  alleged  miraculous  ele- 
ments in  Christianity  due  allowance  will  be  made  for  modern 
and  more  correct  views  of  the  relation  of  the  realm  of  the  nat- 
ural to  the  realm  of  the  supernatural,  for  critical  difficulties 
in  the  records  of  the  miracles  and  for  the  difference  between 


198  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

the  New  and  Old  Testament  points  of  view  in  their  general 
estimate  of  miracles. 

In  the  defense  of  supernatural  Christianity  in  its  broadest 
and  most  comprehensive  aspects,  the  doctrinal  preacher  will 
not  be  afraid  of  critical,  historical  tests.  He  will  give  full 
weight  to  the  importance  of  thorough  critical  and  historical 
investigation  into  all  the  phenomena  of  what  calls  itself  super- 
natural Christianity,  as  the  best  modern  apologists,  like  Prof. 
Bruce,  have  done.  Nor  will  he  shrink  from  assigning  to  the 
sphere  of  nature  what  clearly  belongs  there  any  more  than  he 
will  shrink  from  exalting  to  the  sphere  above  nature  what  can 
render  a  no  less  worthy  account  of  itself. 

In  discussing  eschatological  questions  doctrinal  preaching 
will  adjust  itself  to  the  spirit  of  moderation  and  reserve  that 
marks  the  modern  method  of  investigation  of  these  problems, 
to  our  better  knowledge  of  the  significance  of  eschatological 
Scriptures,  to  our  more  rational  and  realistic  conceptions  of 
punishment,  and  to  the  larger  and  more  humanitarian  sym- 
pathies and  tastes  that  characterize  our  time,  and  that  involve 
an  intensified  sense  of  the  misery  and  bondage  as  well  as  guilt 
of  human  sin.  But  the  preacher  of  strong  ethical  mind  will 
wish  to  assure  himself  that  these  considerations  are  in  har- 
mony with  just  and  serious  views  of  the  guilt  of  sin  and  with 
the  true  moral  welfare  of  men. 

The  practical  moral  bearings  of  the  facts  and  truths  of 
Christianity,  as  contrasted  witii  the  results  of  the  teachings  of 
its  opponents,  will  naturally  be  dealt  with  by  the  skillful  Chris- 
tian apologist.  The  uplift  that  supernaturalism  has  given  the 
world,  as  contrasted  with  the  nervelessness  of  the  crass  nat- 
uralism and  materialism  of  modern  life,  has  immense  apolo- 
getic value,  whose  significance  the  preacher  cannot  afford  to 
minimize.  What  the  supernaturalism  of  Christianity  has 
wrought  in  all  departments  of  thought  and  life  and  what  might 
be  the  effect,  or  what  might  have  been,  upon  the  world,  upon 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE  199 

its  art,  upon  its  literature,  especially  upon  its  poetry  and  upon 
its  religion,  of  a  complete  loss  of  faith  in  this  higher  element 
in  Christianity — all  this  is  of  value  to  the  preacher  who  would 
rally  and  support  the  faith  of  his  people. 

The  relation  of  Christianity  to  the  broader  view  of  the  world, 
to  those  conceptions  of  an  illimitable  and  vastly  flexible  spirit- 
ual universe,  that  are  the  heritage  of  our  age,  is  an  aspect  of 
modern  apology  which  no  preacher  can  afford  to  ignore.  In 
the  presence  of  such  a  universe  and  with  it  as  the  native  coun- 
try of  the  human  spirit  how  petty  and  insignificant  seems  that 
view  of  human  life  that  would  regard  it  as  a  closed  sphere,  a 
little  existence  shut  up  within  itself  and  with  no  touching- 
points  with  the  vast  illimitable  of  a  supernatural  sphere! 

2.  As  regards  the  homiletic  form  of  the  doctrinal  sermon, 
it  is  clear  first  of  all  that  no  type  of  sermon  demands  more  care 
l^  in  the  choice  of  texts.  A  New  Testament  text  is  needed  for  a 
New  Testament  doctrine.  The  New  Testament  interprets  the 
Old.  The  Old  interprets  the  New,  but  not  adequately.  Read- 
ing New  Testament  doctrines  into  Old  Testament  Scriptures 
has  been  one  of  the  serious  defects  of  doctrinal  preaching.  The 
text  may  well  contain  explicitly  the  germ  of  the  doctrine  dis- 
cussed. There  are  types  of  didactic  preaching,  as  already  inti- 
mated, that  may  well  use  their  texts  suggestively.  But  this 
type  of  didactic  discourse  should  rest  upon  the  exact  thought 
of  the  text  or  at  least  should  not  be  deduced  by  any  remote, 
inferential  process.  It  is  one  of  the  homiletic  sins  of  this  type 
of  preaching  that  it  has  abused  texts  by  using  them  without 
a  legitimate  basis  for  the  doctrine  discussed. 

The  introduction  will  naturally  be  explanatory,  or  will  give 
itself  to  the  task  of  relating  text  to  theme  or  of  bringing  text 
and  context  up  into  manifest  connection  with  the  theme  and  so 
justifying  it.  If  it  starts  with  a  general  thought  or  from  some 
phase  of  the  general  subject,  it  will  naturally  run  into  and 
through  the  text  in  reaching  the  theme. 


200  THE   WORK   OF  THE   PREACHER 

It  is  presupposed  that  the  preacher  will  follow  the  deductive 
method.  In  his  investigation  and  preparation  he  may  have  fol- 
lowed the  inductive  method.  But  he  must  reverse  this  in  the 
pulpit.  One  cannot  spend  time  to  reproduce  his  process  of 
investigation  in  the  pulpit.  He  deals  with  results  and  his 
process  is  rather  the  unfolding  than  the  infolding  process.  The 
theme,  therefore,  will  be  a  statement  of  the  subject  in  hand 
and  whether  in  propositional  or  in  rhetorical  form  will  depend 
upon  the  method  of  the  discussion. 

The  plan  of  the  sermon  consists  of  the  arguments  that  sup- 
port the  thesis.  The  chief  logical  interest  is  the  weight  and 
cogency  of  the  arguments.  The  chief  rhetorical  interest  is 
<  the  order  of  their  presentation.  No  type  of  sermon  demands 
V  I  such  clearness  and  precision  of  statement  and  such  orderly 
arrangement. 

The  development  will  depend  upon  the  character  of  the 
topics  or  upon  the  method  of  argument.  It  may  be  abstract  or 
concrete  according  to  the  method  pursued  in  the  presentation 
of  proofs.  If  one  looks  for  rhetorical  effectiveness  in  his  dis- 
cussion, his  development  will  be  concrete  and  illustrative  and 
so  the  more  persuasive  if  not  the  more  convincing.  It  is  not 
the  habit  of  preachers  in  our  day  to  handle  abstract  topics  in 
processes  of  argument. 

The  conclusion  will  naturally  recapitulate,  and  will  then  de'al 
yj  with  the  ethical  enforcement  of  the  truth  of  the  discussion, 
which  will  come  in  the  form  of  inferences,  ending  perhaps  with 
appeal. 

Thus  the  object  of  the  doctrinal  sermon  gives  us  the  scope 
of  the  demand.  The  object  will  be  first  to  state  and  interpret 
the  doctrine,  assuming,  as  one  must,  that  the  preacher  will 
generally  follow  the  deductive  method.  Secondly,  to  present 
the  evidences  of  its  truth,  by  whatever  method  of  proof.  These 
methods  of  proof  will  necessarily  vary  with  the  character  of 
the  doctrine  presented,  with  the  character  of  the  audience. 


I 


THE  DOCTRINAL  TYPE 


20 1 


and  with  the  method  of  handling  the  sermon.     Thirdly,  to  il- 
lustrate it.     Fourthly,  to    enforce  it,  i.  e.,  to  inculcate'  those 
practical  duties  and  interests  that  are  involved  in  the  ethical 
aspects  of  the  truth  in  hand.    First,  a  clear  apprehension  and 
clear  statement  as  to  what  the  doctrine  is.    Hence  explanation 
and  definition.    Th*en  it  can  be  the  more  successfully  argued. 
But  by  illustration  in  the  process  of  argument,  it  can  be  the 
more  persuasively  presented,  and  successfully  established.     In 
all  this  the  object  sought  is  not  merely  an  intellectual  but  a 
moral  interest  in  the  subject.     With  this  advantage,  it  can  be 
the  more  effectively  enforced.    Here  then  we  have  three  chief 
interests.     First  an  expository  interest,  which  appears  in  the 
mtroduction  and  theme;  secondly,  a  dialectical  interest,  which 
appears  in  the  processes  of  the  discussion ;  thirdly,  an  ethical 
mterest,  which  appears  prominently  in  the  conclusion.     The 
rhetorical  attractiveness  of  the  discourse  is  limited  to  no  par- 
ticular part  of  it  and  is  always  an  instrument  for  successful 
transmission.  This  is  not  a  program.  Every  preacher  will  have 
his  own  method  and  every  modification  in  homiletic  habits  will 
affect  the  style  of  doctrinal  discussion.    But  the  considerations 
suggested  at  least  present  the    main  points    of  the    homiletic 
problem,  whatever  the  method  of  its  realization. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  ETHICAL  TYPE 

I.  The  Conception  of  Ethical  Preaching 
All  preaching  is  in  the  broad  sense  ultimately  ethical  in  so 
far  at  least  as  it  aims  at  the  production  of  character  and  the 
regulation  of  conduct  by  influencing  the  will  to  the  choice  of 
moral  ends  or  ideals.  But  the  term  is  used  here  in  a  more 
specific  sense.  In  this  specific  sense  ethical  preaching  is  the 
exposition,  inculcation  and  practical  application  to  character 
and  conduct  of  moral  ideals  of  duty  and  of  virtue.  As  thus 
defined  it  is  a  distinctive  type  of  preaching.  Just  how  it 
differs  from  the  types  of  preaching  already  discussed  is  ap- 
parent at  once.  Both  of  them  may  have  ethical  substance  and 
an  ultimate  ethical  aim.  Expository  preaching,  e.  g.,  from  the 
epistle  of  James  would  necessarily  be  ethical  in  its  content  and 
aim.  But  the  ethical  sermon  is  not  limited  to  Biblical  material. 
It  has  wider  range.  Some  Christian  doctrines  are  essentially 
and  preeminently  ethical  in  their  subject  matter.  They  are 
doctrinal  as  related  to  the  content  of  revelation  and  to  the 
content  of  Christian  thought  involved  in  their  interpretation ; 
but  ethical  as  related  to  practical  realization,  in  character  and 
conduct.  For  example,  the  doctrine  of  Faith,  Repentance,  and 
Conversion.  A  doctrinal  sermon  on  either  of  these  subjects 
would  be  ethical  in  substance  and  aim.  In  fact  all  doctrine  has 
its  ethical  aspects,  and  there  can  be  no  doctrinal  presentation 
of  the  proper  sort  without  ethical  aim.  But  the  doctrinal  ser- 
mon is  not  ethical  in  the  sense  of  our  definition.  The  distinc- 
tion between  Christian  dogmatics  and  Christian  ethics  defines 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  203 

the  difference.  Dogmatics  deals  with  the  Godward  side  of 
truth,  Ethics  with  the  manward  side.  The  former  deals  with 
the  objectively-given  truths  of  revelation,  which  have  become 
subjects  of  human  reflection,  the  latter  with  the  duties  involved 
in  the  application  of  these  truths  and  the  virtues  realized  in  the 
fulfillment  of  these  duties.  Thus  doctrinal  preaching  lays 
the  foundation  for  ethical  preaching.  How  can  one  sucess- 
fully  discuss  Christian  duties  and  virtues  without  some 
understanding  of  the  fundamental  truths  on  which  they 
rest? 

We  may  differentiate  ethical  from  what  is  commonly  called 
practical  preaching.  All  ethical  preaching  is  practical,  but  not 
all  practical  preaching  is  ethical  in  the  closer  sense  of  the  term. 
Practical  preaching  aims  at  the  production  of  practical  results 
in  the  most  comprehensive  sense,  religious  as  well  as  moral. 
Any  kind  of  sermon,  expository  or  doctrinal,  that  is  so  shaped 
as  to  produce  practical  results  of  any  kind,  whether  in  thought, 
in  conviction  or  in  action,  is  a  practical  sermon.  A  persuasive 
sermon  that  aims  without  much  exposition  or  didactic  dis- 
cussion, at  the  practical  results  of  persuasion,  is  preeminently 
a  practical  sermon.  The  ethical  sermon,  however,  aims  at  a 
distinctively  and  a  specifically  ethical  result.  The  practical  ser- 
mon may  attempt  to  secure  faith  or  to  promote  a  receptive 
attitude  of  soul  with  respect  to  the  grace  of  God.  But  the 
ethical  sermon,  of  the  more  distinctive  sort,  will  aim  to  secure 
those  virtues  that  belong  to  faith  and  will  inculcate  the  duties 
that  are  realized  in  such  virtues.  "Add  to  your  faith  virtue" 
is  an  ethical  injunction.  The  practical  sermon  may  aim  at  its 
result  by  influencing  the  emotions  as  for  example  the  evan- 
gelistic or  the  parenetic  sermon  does.  But  the  ethical  sermon 
will  aim  at  its  results  by  influencing  the  conscience  primarily 
or  preeminently.  The  one  may  deal  with  the  promises  or  com- 
forts or  admonitions  of  the  Gospel,  the  other  with  the  demands 
of  the  Gospel  and  with  the  obligations  that  are  set  over  against 


204  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

these  demands.  In  a  word  the  one  may  deal  with  the  privileges 
the  other  with  the  duties  that  are  presented  by  the  Gospel. 

Ethical  preaching,  moreover,  may  be  differentiated  from 
what  has  been  known  as  revival  preaching.  In  its  ultimate  in- 
tent and  scope,  revival  preaching  is,  of  course,  ethical,  for  it 
has  refernce  to  righteous  character  and  conduct  and,  there- 
fore, aims  at  reaching  the  conscience  and  will.  But  it  differs 
in  the  following  particulars.  Revival  preaching  seeks  to  re- 
fresh the  spiritual  life  of  the  church,  the  life  of  renewed 
fellowship  with  Christ.  On  the  other  hand  ethical  preaching 
aims  at  the  development  of  those  Christian  virtues  that  are  the 
product  of  the  spiritual  life,  justice,  patience,  humility,  tem- 
perance, fidelity,  covenant  virtues  perhaps  especially.  Revival 
preaching,  like  all  preaching  of  the  evangelistic  type,  aims  also 
at  the  conversion  of  men,  i.  e.,  at  the  production  of  faith,  re- 
pentance, and  obedience  to  Christ,  but  ethical  preaching  aims 
at  the  realization  of  the  fruits  of  all  this  in  the  imitation  of 
Christ's  example.  Revival  preaching  looks  at  results  in  the 
totality  of  life,  i.  e.,  to  religious  as  well  as  moral  results  and  on 
a  wide  field.  Ethical  preaching  looks  at  life  in  the  details  of 
its  practical  moral  development,  e.  g.,  the  development  of 
specific  virtues,  and  the  discharge  of  specific  duties. 

Ethical  preaching  may  also  differentiate  itself  from  what 
was  formerly  called  law-preaching,  i.  e.,  preaching  of  an 
ethico-evangelistic  type,  which  was  regarded  as  necessary  prep- 
aration for  revival  work.  To  preach  "the  law"  is  to  present 
its  Godward  and  manward  claims.  The  claims  of  law  involve 
implicitly  certain  duties.  These  duties  are  realized  in  virtues. 
In  the  content  of  its  conception  ethics  involves  the  notion  of 
law.  Natural  or  philosophical  ethics  involves  the  notion  of 
law  as  related  to  the  natural  conscience ;  Hebrew  ethics,  law 
as  revealed  in  the  Hebrew  religion ;  Christian  ethics,  law  as 
revealed  and  realized  in  Christ.  Law  theistically  and  Chris- 
tianly  conceived  is    God's  will    touching  a  man's    disposition. 


I 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  205 

purpose,  action,  character  as  related  to  Him  and  to  his 
fellow  men.  That  right  disposition,  purpose,  action, 
character  realized  is  virtue  in  its  comprehensive 
conception.  Realized  distributively  in  the  manifold  re- 
lations of  life,  it  produces  the  different  forms  of  virtue,  it 
develops  the  concrete  qualities  of  a  practical  moral  life.  To 
preach  law,  therefore,  is  to  preach  ethically.  Yet  ethical 
preaching  in  the  sense  here  intended  is  not  the  exact  equivalent 
of  law  preaching.  It  differs  as  follows :  Law-preaching  was 
accustomed  to  accentuate  the  divine  side,  God's  rights,  God's 
claims,  God's  sanctions.  Ethical  preaching  lays  accent  upon 
the  human  side  mainly,  what  we  owe,  why  we  owe  it,  the  re- 
sult of  failure  to  discharge  the  obligation.  In  a  word,  note 
once  more,  it  lays  its  stress  upon  our  duties  and  upon  the  vir- 
tues that,  in  various  forms,  are  developed  in  the  discharge  of 
the  obligation.  Law-preaching,  moreover,  has  for  its  stress- 
point  the  claims  of  God  in  their  unity  and  totality,  i.  e.,  the 
great,  inclusive  law  of  love,  the  root-principle  of  all  moral  law. 
Ethical  preaching  fixes  attention  upon  specific  duties  or  classes 
of  duty  and  upon  those  virtues  that  spring  out  of  and  are 
inseparably  associated  with  the  great  law  or  principle 
of  love. 

I  have  lingered  with  these  discriminations  and  distinctions, 
not  for  the  purpose  of  multiplying  points  of  differentiation, 
but  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  a  limit  to  our  conception  of  ethical 
preaching,  nor  yet  for  the  purpose  of  unduly  limiting  it,  but 
for  the  purpose  of  fixing  specific  attention  upon  it  as  a  type  of 
preaching,  which  rightly  conceived  is  relatively  new  and  highly 
important,  and  for  the  purpose,  if  may  be,  of  conditioning  its 
greater  effectiveness.  Certainly  its  effectiveness  will  be  meas- 
urably conditioned  by  a  definite  and  vigorous  conception  of  it 
and  of  its  possibilities  as  a  type  of  preaching.  But  still  further 
in  the  interest  of  effectiveness,  let  us  advance  our  discussion 
a  little. 


^\ 


206  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

H.     The  Christian  Quality  of  Ethical  Preaching 

In  some  circles  that  are  called  evangelical,  there  is,  or  per- 
haps I  should  say  has  been,  a  prejudice  against  ethical  preach- 
ing. It  has  been  regarded  as  even  antagonistic  to  evangelical 
preaching,  and  as  such  has  been  much  criticised.  This  preju- 
dice has  been  based  upon  a  totally  wrong  conception  of  it.  It 
has  been  confounded  with  the  deistic  or  rationalistic  moraliz- 
ing of  a  former  period,  when  morality  was  substituted  for  re- 
ligion, and  ethics  for  theology,  when  the  necessity  and  reality 
of  revelation  were  denied  and  men's  relations  to  their  fellow 
men  were  divorced  from  their  relations  with  God.  This  was 
the  preaching  of  so-called  "natural  religion,"  based  on  natural- 
istic ethics,  and  was  indeed  in  a  measure  antagonistic  to  the 
religion  of  redemption.  In  this  sense  it  was  opposed  to  evan- 
gelical preaching  and  it  must  be  confessed  it  was  relatively  un- 
fruitful preaching. 

But  let  it  be  understood  that  the  ethical  preaching  advocated 
in  this  discussion  is  distinctively  Christian  in  its  quality.  It 
rests  upon  the  revelation  of  God  in  Christ.  Its  basis  is  the 
grace  that  is  revealed  to  us  and  the  grace  that  is  appropriated 
by  us,  a  two  fold  basis,  objective,  as  related  to  what  God  has 
done  for  us,  subjective,  as  related  to  what  we  have  done  in 
the  inward  appropriation  of  God's  work. 

Let  us  examine  this  two-fold  basis  and  see  what  lies  back 
of  the  ethics  with  which  in  the  main  the  Christian  pulpit  must 
deal. 

I.  Ethical  preaching  of  the  Christian  type  has  for  its  ob- 
jective basis  the  law  of  God  as  related  to  the  grace  of  God. 
The  law  that  exacts  obedience  is  the  law  of  Christ,  the  law  of 
God  as  revealed,  mtcrpreted  and  realized  in  Christ. 

It  is  first  of  all  a  law  that  is  related  to  the  forgiveness  of 
sin,  as  revealed  and  proclaimed  by  Christ.  An  absolutely  per- 
fect moral  life  from  the  Christian  point  of  view,  is  practically, 
although  not  theoretically,  unattainable  here  below.     A  moral 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  207 

law,  therefore,  that  should  exalt  a  perfect  obedience,  without 
association  with  some  provision  by  which  the  defects  of  moral 
life  may  be  overlooked  and  by  which  men  may  still  be  kept  in 
favor  with  God,  would  be  an  impracticable  law.  It  would  be  a 
law  that  could  not  be  preached,  with  any  expectation  that  it 
would  ever  be  fully  realized.  How  can  one  preach  an  absolute 
morality  unless  such  morality  be  somehow  available  or  realiz- 
able, or  unless  there  be  some  provision  found  or  disclosed  by 
which  moral  defects  may  be  cancelled  in  the  process  of  its 
realization  ?  In  point  of  fact  an  absolute  morality  has  prac- 
tically never  been  insisted  upon.  It  is  only  presented  as  an 
ideal.  The  human  race  has  never  been  under  sheer  law,  a  law 
unrelieved  by  any  purpose  or  provision  of  grace,  hidden  or 
revealed.  There  has  always  been  an  element  of  grace  in  or 
behind  all  moral  law.  Paul  shows  that  back  of  the  old  Jewish 
and  antecedent  Hebrew  or  patriarchal  revelation  there  was  a 
hidden  purpose  of  grace.  But  this  law  of  grace  is  revealed  in 
its  fullness  only  in  Christ.  Now  this  is  the  objective  basis,  or 
one  of  the  elements  of  an  objective  basis  for  practical  Chris- 
tian ethics.  The  Christian  moral  ideal,  therefore,  must  be  pre- 
sented in  its  relation  to  the  grace  of  God.  Otherwise  it  is  not 
a  Christian  ideal  at  all  and  is  a  hopeless  ideal.  The  obedience 
that  is  inculcated  by  the  law  of  Christ  and  the  virtues  that  are 
demanded  by  it  are  rendered  practicable,  are  made  realizable 
by  the  grace  of  God  as  revealed  in  Christ  and  that  first  of  all 
proclaims  the  forgiveness  of  sin.  No  one  can  successfully 
preach  a  virtue  that  is  practically  beyond  every  man's  reach. 
Such  preaching  would  only  evoke  hostility,  or  would  result  in 
complete  disheartenment.  We  take  hold  of  the  future  hope- 
fully only  as  we  see  that  our  relation  to  the  past  has  been 
adjusted. 

The  Christian  moral  law  is  also  a  law  that  has  been  fully 
realized  and  exemplified  in  the  personal  character  and  life  of 
Christ.    This  exemplification  illustrates  and  in  effect  proclaims 


\ 


>\ 


208  THE   WORK    OF   THE    PREACHER 

the  possibility  of  its  ultimate  fulfillment  by  every  human  being 
who  works  in  moral  alliance  with  Christ.  Christ's  preaching 
is  largely  ethical,  but  it  is  all  based  on  the  assumed  vital  re- 
lation of  ethical  truth  to  his  own  person.  It  is  his  entire  per- 
son, his  entire  complex  self-revelation,  and  not  simply  his  doc- 
trines or  teachings,  i.  e.,  the  revelation  of  his  mind  alone,  that 
constitute  the  back-ground  of  all  ethical  preaching.  This  is  the 
reason,  largely  at  least,  why  Christ  preached  himself  so  con- 
stantly. He  could  not  otherwise  make  his  morality  available. 
The  peculiarity  and  it  is  a  very  striking,  in  fact  a  unique  pe- 
culiarity, of  Christian  ethics  is  just  this :  It  exacts  nothing, 
the  perfect  exemplification  of  which  has  not,  in  its  essence  or 
principle,  been  found  in  tlie  obedience  of  Christ's  own  life. 
The  command  is:  "Be  this,  for  this  is  what  I  am";  "Do  this, 
for  I  did  it" ;  "This  is  my  commandment  that  ye  love  one 
another,  as  I  have  loved  you."  And  this  is  why  it  is  a  new 
commandment.  It  is  new  in  its  realization  and  exemplifica- 
tion. 

The  Christian  moral  law  is,  moreover,  a  law  that  is  related 
to  the  promise  and  to  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  promise 
and  the  gift  of  moral  power  by  which  the  spirit  of  loving  obe- 
dience is  secured  and  by  which  the  actual  obedience  of  life  is 
developed.  That  is  to  say,  the  exactions  of  Christian  ethics  are 
oflFset  not  merely  by  the  external  revelation  of  a  gracious  pro- 
vision of  reconciliation  and  by  an  external  exemplification  of 
its  realization  in  Christ,  but  by  a  revealed  provision  through 
which  the  requisite  ethical  motives  may  become  inwardly  op- 
erative and  personally  eflFective.  Nothing  is  demanded  by  God 
which  He  is  not  willing  and  able,  by  the  power  of  his  spirit 
working  within,  to  aid  in  executing.  This  helpful  provision 
is  a  revelation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  working  force  in  life. 
It  is  a  part  of  Christianity  as  an  objective  revelation  of  God. 
And  in  Whitsuntide  the  coming  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  new 
power  in  moral  life  is  commemorated  by  the  Christian  church. 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  209 

From  what  has  already  been  said  it  is  sufficiently  evident 
that  ethical  preaching  of  the  Christian  type  will  always  be 
grounded  in  the  fundamental  facts  and  truths  of  Christianity 
as  the  religion  of  grace  and  redemption.  Success  in  it  will 
ultimately  depend  on  one's  success  in  making  these  facts  and 
truths  of  grace  real  to  the  mind  and  impressive  to  the  heart  and 
conscience.  It  will  depend  on  what  has  preceded  it  and  what 
lies  under  it.  Only  in  so  far  as  the  pulpit  is  clear  and  forcible 
in  its  presentation  of  the  facts  and  truths  of  grace,  will  it  be 
successful  in  its  presentation  of  the  moral  demands  of  Chris- 
tianity. And  perhaps  this  may  answer  the  question,  which  will 
naturally  occur,  as  to  the  proportion  of  ethical  preaching  which 
may  be  expected.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  is  great 
need,  and  need  of  a  great  deal,  of  ethical  preaching. 

But  if  one  must  make  his  preaching  of  grace  do  the  work 
of  preparation,  and  if  success  in  ethical  exposition  and  incul- 
cation will  depend  on  foundations  already  laid,  it  follows  that 
the  preaching  of  ethics  must  be  subordinate  to  the  preaching 
of  grace,  and  the  ethical  note  must  be  subordinate  to  the  evan- 
gelical note.  The  proclamation  of  Christianity  as  a  revelation 
of  redemptive  grace  must  have  precedence  of  the  proclamation 
of  it  as  a  revelation  of  moral  law. 

And  what  has  already  been  said  may  furnish  a  general  an- 
swer to  the  question  as  to  how  ethical  preaching  may  be  prac- 
tically and  specifically  adjusted  to  the  preaching  of  grace.  It 
is  adjusted  to  it  by  being  made  dependent  upon  it.  But  an 
additional  suggestion  is  pertinent.  It  is  easily  possible  that 
into  the  most  practical  part  of  an  ethical  sermon  there  may  be 
introduced  a  definite  reference  to  the  provision  of  God's  grace 
as  Christ. 

Bishop  Brooks  was  very  skillful,  very  Christian  and  very 
persuasive  in  bringing  Christ,  as  an  ethical  ideal  and  source  of 
moral  power  into  immediate  relation  with  the  somewhat  lofty 
and  often  difficult  ethical  themes  discussed  by  him.     This  is 


2IO  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

one  of  the  chief  sources  of  the  exceeding  helpfulness  of  his 
preaching.  He  presents  high  ideals.  This  is  one  of  the  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics  of  his  preaching.  He  was  an  ethical 
idealist  of  extraordinarily  high  degree.  But  he  always  brings 
Christ  into  practical  relation  with  the  ideals  presented  and  he 
endeavors  to  leave  the  impression,  and  succeeds  in  doing  it, 
that  after  all  with  Christ  these  are  attainable  ideals. 

The  attention  of  the  reader  is  directed  to  a  Prayer  Meeting 
Address  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher*  in  the  year  1863  just  be- 
fore his  departure  to  Europe  to  advocate  before  the  English 
people  the  cause  of  the  American  Union,  in  which  he,  in  a  very 
interesting  and  instructive  manner  refers  to  the  place  which 
Christ  holds  in  his  ethical  preaching. 

2.  But  all  Christian  morality  is  the  product  of  an  inner  life. 
The  obedience  demanded  and  the  virtues  to  be  realized  are  dis- 
tinctively Christian  in  quality.  This  inner  root  of  Christian 
virtue  is  the  subjective  presuppositon  of  ethical  preaching.  It 
is  the  interpretation  and  inculcation  of  a  living,  a  real  inner 
virtue,  and  not  a  mechanical  or  heartless  goodness. 

The  obedience  of  Christian  morality  is  first  of  all  the  obed- 
ince  of  love.  There  is,  there  can  be,  no  obedience,  no  virtue, 
that  can  be  called  Christian,  which  is  not  rooted  in  love.  Love 
is  the  life  of  it.  To  preach  a  heartless  obedience,  or  a  heartless 
virtue  is  not  Christian  preaching.  It  may  be  ethical,  but  it  is 
not  Christianly  ethical.  It  is  true  that  it  may  sometimes  be 
necessary  and  even  desirable  to  inculcate  human  duties  and 
virtues  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  exaction  of  the  natural 
conscience,  i.  e.,  from  the  motive  of  prudence  or  personal 
honor,  or  self-respect  or  social  obligation,  or  a  native  sense  of 
right  and  wrong  that  has  been  untrained  in  the  school  of 
Christ.  All  roads  may  lead  to  Christ.  To  inculcate  for  ex- 
ample the  virtue  of  temperance,  or  of  business  honesty,  from 
the  motive  of  personal  prudence  may  open  into  a  larger  view. 

♦Sermons   1860-1868  vol.    I.  page  447. 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  211 

But  such  preaching  in  connection  with  the  worship  of  a  Chris- 
tian congregation  may  well  be  exceptional.  If  one  feels  obliged 
to  take  men  on  their  own  ground  it  may  well  be  along  a  line 
that  will  lead  to  the  consideration  of  the  higher  Christian 
motives.  But  to  deal  only  with  the  lower  motives  is  not  ethical 
preaching  of  the  Christian  sort  at  all.  In  the  presence  of  a 
Christian  congregation  it  is  the  wiser  way  to  approach  all  moral 
subjects  from  the  distinctively  Christian  point  of  departure. 
It  is  not  the  preacher's  vocation  to  preach  non-Christian  ethics. 
Such  preaching  would  impoverish  the  Christian  pulpit,  as  it 
was  impoverished  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Morality  must 
have  a  living  root.  Men  need  an  underlying  principle  of 
morality  that  will  disclose  itself  in  all  their  relations  with  their 
fellow  men.  This  needs  emphasis  in  our  day.  It  is  needed 
especially  in  connection  with  the  discussion  of  social  subjects. 
It  will  be  ultimately  fruitless  to  discuss  the  duties  of  the  dif- 
ferent social  classes  to  each  other,  unless  they  can  be  made 
to  see  and  feel  and  appropriate  the  truth  that  these  duties  rest 
on  some  comprehensive  principle  that  must  dominate  the  whole 
life.  That  principle  is  unselfish  philanthropy,  and  it  is 
grounded  in  religion.  An  earnest  and  vigorous  presentation  of 
the  character  and  life  of  Christ  is  essential  to  the  most  success- 
ful ethical  preaching.  Any  man  who,  like  the  late  Bishop 
Brooks,  gives  his  life  to  the  work  of  presenting  Christ  in  his 
practical  working  relation  with  men,  who  every  Lord's  day 
holds  before  their  minds  the  significance  of  his  character  and 
life  for  their  own  character  and  lives,  and  who  is  able  to  im- 
press upon  their  hearts  and  consciences  his  wonderful  inspiring 
power,  is  doing  a  great  and  needed  work  in  the  interest  of  the 
unification  of  the  different  contending  classes  and  factions  of 
human  society.  He  will  do  far  more  than  the  pulpit  dabbler 
in  economic  and  social  science.  Not  that  one  may  undervalue 
the  preacher's  interest  in  these  sciences.  In  the  nature  of  the 
case,  however,  the  man  who  deals  so  largely  with  the  funda- 


212  THE    WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

mental  principles  of  the  Christian  life,  and  whose  field  of  ap- 
plied Christianity  is  so  vast,  can  not  have  very  great  success 
in  an  effort  to  exhaust  any  one  branch  of  social  ethics.  More- 
over it  is  not  necessary.  In  order  to  deal  successfully  with 
Christianity  as  applied  to  the  vexed  industrial  and  social  prob- 
^  lems  of  our  day,  it  is  not  necessary  for  a  preacher  to  have  an 
exhaustive  technical  knowledge  of  the  economic  or  social 
sciences.  Knowledge  enough  he  indeed  will  need  to  secure  him 
against  serious  mistake  in  the  practical  application  of  questions 
in  social  Christian  ethics.  But  beyond  this  he  need  not  go.  His 
chief  sphere  is  the  ethical,  not  the  economic  or  sociological. 

The  obedience  of  Christian  morality  is  also  the  obedience  of 
faith.  It  is  an  obedience,  it  is  a  morality  that  is  worthily  real- 
ized in  and  by  faith.  Faith  is  the  initial  point,  it  is  the  condition, 
the  si)ie  qua  non,  as  love  is  the  root,  the  life,  the  sub- 
stance of  all  Christian  virtue.  "In  your  faith  supply  in  addi- 
tion virtue"  (2  Pet.  1:5).  The  entire  series  of  virtues  starts 
from  and  is  realized  through  faith.  This  is  the  New  Testa- 
ment conception,  and  it  is  that  of  James  as  well  as  of  Paul. 
Christian  virtue,  then,  is  as  to  its  source  religious  virtue.  The 
religious  life  is  at  the  foundation  of  the  moral  life.  The  re- 
ceptive activity  is  back  of  the  out-going  and  out-giving  activity. 
And  as  there  is  no  Christian  ethics  which  is  not  at  bottom  re- 
ligious, so  there  is  no  ethical  preaching  of  the  Christian  type 
which  is  not  at  bottom  religious.  Hence  broadly  and  rightly 
conceived,  there  is  no  preaching  that  is  more  characteristically 
Christian  than  this.  All  preaching  must,  as  already  suggested, 
end  in  the  ethical  cjuality.  The  aim  of  Christianity  is  not 
reached  till  it  is  transumated  into  character  and  conduct.  Nor 
is  the  aim  of  Christian  preaching  reached  till  by  the  power 
of  Christian  persuasion  enforced  by  the  sjjirit  of  Christ,  it 
l)r<)duces  the  virtues  that  Christianity  demands. 

Since  now  all  Christian  moralities  are  grounded  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  love  anil  faith,  all  ethical  preaching,  of  the  Christian 


J 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  213 

type,  must  deal  somehow  with  these  principles.  Somehow  and 
somewhere  the  preacher  must  at  last  get  back  to  the  top-root 
of  Christian  morality.  All  this  will  save  ethical  preaching 
from  the  pettiness  that  attends  the  work  of  prescribing  merely 
external  and  formal  rules  of  conduct.  Even  Christian  casu- 
istry, a  branch  of  Christian  ethics  with  which  the  preacher,  but 
especially  the  pastor,  might  well  be  more  familiar,  is  in' this 
way  rescued  from  triviality.  It  is  necessarily  ennobled  by  its 
relation  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  Christian  life. 

From  the  foregoing  it  follows  that  the  success  of  ethical 
preaching,  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  subjective  basis,  will 
m  the  long  run  depend  on  one's  success  in  getting  this  double 
root  of  Christian  virtue  fairly  and  fully  before  the  minds  of 
men  and  strongly  impressed  upon  their  hearts  and  consciences. 
One's  ordinary  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  but  the  proc- 
lamation and  interpretation  of  the  grace  of  God,  as  related  to 
faith  and  love  in  the  recipient  thereof,  will  furnish  a  basis 
of  preparation  for  ethical  inculcation. 

But   the   question    naturally    arises    how   more   specifically 
may     ethical     preaching     be     adjusted     in     the     individual 
sermon     to     what     lies     behind     it?     How     can      it      be 
adjusted    to    fundamental    principles?      It    is    pertinent    to 
suggest     that    the     conclusion     of     the     sermon,     which     is 
the  most  practical  part  of  it,  may  readily  touch  the  bearings 
of  the  mner  principles  of  the  Christian  moral    life  upon    the 
subject  discussed.    This  is  in  line  not  only  with  the  demands 
of  effective  ethical  preaching  but  of  good  homiletic  science.    It 
may  easily  be  done  in  a  simple,  unconventional,  practical  way 
without  theological  terminology  and  without  leaving  the  im- 
pression that  It  is  dragged  into  the  sermon  in  an  external  and 
formal  manner.  A  skillful  preacher,  and  every  ethical  preacher 
especially  may  well  train  himself  in  skillfulness  as  well  as  in 
moral  earnestness,  will  do  this  in  a  free  and  effective  manner. 
After  having  held  up  before  a  congregation  a  high  Christian 


-  aL> 


214  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

ideal  of  character  and  conduct,  after  having  shown  what  it  is, 
shown  the  need  of  it,  and  after  having  urged  it  upon  men's 
acceptance,  it  is  a  sort  of  moral  anticlimax  for  the  preacher  to 
fail  to  remind  his  hearers  that  all  this  is  possible  to  the  be- 
lieving, trusting,  loving,  obedient  heart,  and  that  the  possession 
of  right  inward  principles  and  motives  makes  all  a  not  impos- 
sible task.  "His  commandments  are  not  grevious,"  not  only 
because  they  are  his,  but  because  men  trust  and  love  him,  who 
has  first  loved  us.  "His  yoke  is  easy  and  his  burden  light," 
not  only  because  it  is  the  yoke  and  the  burden  of  him  who  has 
himself  borne  them,  but  because  men  willingly  take  them  and 
bear  them  in  his  strength.  All  this  at  any  rate  must  be  intelli- 
gently presupposed  by  the  preacher  who  would  successfully 
accomplish  his  moral  task. 

HI.  Methods  of  Ethical  Pre.xching 
The  question  of  method  is  quite  as  important  here  if  not 
more  so,  as  in  other  types  of  sermon,  for  it  is  no  insignificant 
task  for  any  man  to  undertake  to  bring  men's  hearts  and  con- 
sciences and  wills  into  subjection  to  the  Christian  moral  life.* 
Neither  is  it  an  insignificant  task  for  any  man  to  undertake  to 
be  a  guide  to  his  fellow  servants  in  such  a  ministry.  The 
writer  can  claim  neither  the  experience  nor  the  theoretic  knowl- 
edge in  this,  as  in  other  homiletic  realms,  that  would  make  him 
competent  for  such  service.  Let  us,  however,  venture  upon  a 
few  suggestions,  and  such  as  are  made  will  be  recognized  as  in 
line  with  approved  modern  ethical  methods. 

I.  The  analytic  method  is  not  uncommon,  and  may  be  made 
most  effective.  In  discussing  a  public  vice  especially  it  becomes 
necessary  to  delve  into,  to  analyze,  and  to  hold  attention 
to  its  sources.  It  is  the  historic  method.  It  is  a 
valuable    method    in    the    discussion    of    any    individual    vir- 

♦See  Dr.  Gustav  Schulzc's  "Uber  moral  predigten."    page  lo  If. 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  215 

tue  or  vice,  but  especially  those  that  are  public.     It  discloses 
the  moral  conditions  of    social  life  and    makes  manifest    the 
process  by  which  the  moral  or  immoral  life  of  the  community 
develops.     We  see  it  in  its  natural  history.     The  preacher  is 
thus  the  better  able  to  point  out  and  make  manifest  its  social 
and  moral  significance  and  from  this  as  a  basis  to  discuss  the 
more  effectively  its  consequences  and  the  remedies  demanded. 
The  value  of  thus  disclosing  the  elements  and  the  processes  of 
a  vice  like  intemperance  is  evident.    Scientific  investigators  in- 
to this  difficult  problem  find  the  need  of  such  a  method  of 
inquiry.     A  sketch  of  the  processes  by  which  the  public  con- 
science is  depraved,  or  by  which  class  antagonism  as  between 
capitalists  and  their  employees,  is  generated,  or  by  which  the 
character  of  a  particular  class  in  the  community  is  developed, 
like  that  of  the  Pharisees  in  the  time  of  Christ,  or  like  the 
modern  political  boss  in  our  American  life,  or  by  which  indi- 
vidual character,  good  or  bad,  of  any  particular  type  is  pro- 
duced,— this  is  a  method  by  which  an  intelligent  and  skillful 
ethical  analyst  and  interpreter  may  render  an  important  public 
service.  Modern  ethical  preachers  are  skillful  in  moral  analy- 
sis.    One  might  cite  Canon  Mozley,  who  in  this  particular,  as 
in  others,  reminds  us  of  Bishop  Butler  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury.    In  dealing  with  all  forms  of  moral  good  or  evil  the  first 
thing  to  do  in  fact  is  to  understand  it  in  its  sources  and  in  its 
nature. 

2.  The  method  of  contrast  is  a  valuable  one  for  the  ethical 
preacher.  It  used  to  be  said  by  our  homiletic  fathers  that 
preaching  to  sinners  was  often  a  very  effective  way  of  preach- 
ing to  saints  and  reversely.  We  thus  reach  them  indirectly.  The 
value  of  the  Christian  life  is  thus  set  before  men  by  way  of 
contrast.  It  is  a  process  by  which  the  Christian  moral  ideal  is 
set  before  men,  and  by  which  they  may  test  themselves.  The 
test  is  not  applied  to  them  directly  by  another  hand.  It  comes 
to  them  from  across  the  border,  from  the  country  which  they 


2i6  THE    WORK    OF   THE    PREACHER 

are  accustomed  to  regard  as  foreign,  but  which  they  find  more 
native  to  them  than  they  thought.  Because  the  test  was  not 
ostensibly  designed  for  them,  they  may  be  the  more  ready  to 
apply  it  to  themselves.  It  is  a  phase  of  the  positive  method. 
Our  fathers  were  in  their  generation  in  many  ways  wiser  than 
the  children  of  homiletic  light  in  our  own  day.  Modern  preach- 
ing is  often  deficient  in  ethical  skillfulness.  Ordinary  pastoral 
preaching  which  deals  so  largely  with  the  duties  and  virtues, 
with  the  satisfactions  and  rewards  of  the  Christian  life,  and 
which  exalts  the  Christian  ideal  of  character  and  conduct,  is 
pretty  sure  to  leave  some  salutary  impression  upon  those  in  the 
congregation  who  do  not  profess  and  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians. The  same  principle  holds  good  as  regards  any  type  of 
ethical  preaching.  The  presentation  of  some  duty  to  one  class 
proves  to  be  a  most  successful  reminder  of  duties  that  belong 
to  another  class.  The  inculcation  of  a  virtue  furnishes  a 
powerful  admonition  against  the  contrasted  vice.  It  is  a  proc- 
ess that  avoids  all  direct  antagonism.  It  may  be  necessary  in 
exceptional  cases  to  make  a  direct  attack  on  some  one  man  in 
the  congregation,  or  upon  some  one  class  of  men  represented  in 
the  congregation,  but  in  general  it  is  not  the  wiser  or  the  more 
successful  method.  A  preacher  may  sometimes  touch  and  in- 
fluence the  wealthy  men  of  a  congregation,  who  are  the  em- 
ployers of  workmen,  by  going  a  long  way  around  through 
other  sections  of  the  congregation  in  order  to  get  at  them  and 
by  advice  which  is  ostensibly  wholly  unrelated  to  them.  The 
seemingly  irrelevent  is  often  the  most  pertinent. 

3.  The  descriptive  and  dramatic  method  has  proved  most 
effective  in  moral  discourse.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  most 
skillful  and  most  powerful  in  a  species  of  semi-dramatic  rep- 
resentation of  moral  processes  and  results.  It  was  the  de- 
scriptive style  applied  with  great  passion  in  the  psychological 
and  ethical  realm.  His  "Lectures  to  Young  Men,"  which  are 
among  the  most  brilliant  and  successful  discourses  he  ever  de- 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  217 

livered  or  published,  although  much  too  exuberant  in  rhetorical 
quality  and  too  tropical  in  imagery  for  the  literay  tastes  of  our 
day,  abound  in  this  descriptive  and  dramatic  style.  In  a  most 
vividly  concrete  way  they  depict  the  processes  and  the  rewards 
of  vice  and  of  virtue  as  well.  In  them  are  disclosed  Mr. 
Beecher's  Shakesperian  gifts.  Just  here  very  largely  was  the 
secret  of  the  power  of  the  preaching  about  heaven  and  hell, 
which  prevailed  in  former  days.  Of  course,  a  reproduction  of 
just  that  type  of  dramatic  method  would  not  avail  in  our  day. 
It  would  be  regarded  as  insincere,  unreal  and  artificially  over- 
wrought. But  this  scenic  method  in  general,  chastened  by  the 
modern  severities  of  sesthetic  taste,  might  be  used  most  effec- 
tively in  delineating  the  strictly  natural  outworkings  of  good 
and  evil  in  the  present  life.  The  preacher  who  is  skillful  in 
making  real  to  his  hearers  the  present  curse  of  sin  and  the 
present  blessing  of  goodness,  may  well  leave  to  the  God  and 
Father  of  all  men  the  outcome  thereof  in  a  world  of  which  he 
knows  but  little. 

4.  Dignity  of  treatment  is  important  in  any  method.  It  is 
itself  a  method.  The  so-called  moral  sermons  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  were  objectionable  on  account  of  their  pettiness.  Sub- 
jects of  small  ethical  import  like  a  person's  manners,  or  per- 
sonal habits,  like  the  wearing  of  long  hair,  or  like  the  occupa- 
tions of  life,  such  as  gardening  or  farming,  were  treated  with 
great  minuteness  and  prolixity  of  detail.  The  best  way  to  treat 
small,  relatively  small,  ethical  subjects  is  to  do  it  in  connection 
with  the  discussion  of  some  larger  subject  and  in  a  seemingly 
subordinate  and  incidental  way.  thus  reaching  the  hearer  in- 
directly. Just  here  is  preeminently  the  value  of  the  expository 
method  of  preaching.  One  may  thus  touch  upon  relatively  in- 
significant subjects  without  seeming  to  make  too  much  of  them. 
Thus  small  subjects  get  new  meaning  and  importance  from  the 
larger  and  more  comprehensive  and  more  general  circles  of 
truth  with  which  they  are  indirectly  associated.     They  become 


2i8  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

especially  weighty,  as  being  brought  into  relation  with  funda- 
mental principles.  And  they  are  the  more  effectively  handled 
by  being  touched  briefly. 

5.  A  tone  of  manly  persuasiveness  is  necessary  in  what- 
ever method.  An  offensive  harshness  will  injure  the  effect  of 
any  sermon  that  would  awaken  the  conscience  and  change  the 
course  of  life.  A  preacher  may  use  great  plainness  of  speech. 
He  may  be  severe  in  his  moral  earnestness.  He  may  on  oc- 
casian  even  evoke  the  thunders  of  moral  wrath.  But  all  moral 
severity  should  have  a  background  of  human  kindliness  and 
graciousness  and  unselfishness.  The  ethical  preacher  needs  the 
angel  of  mercy  to  stand  sentinel  over  his  heart  and  his  lips 
need  the  guardianship  of  wisdom  and  sobriety  and  philan- 
thropy. He  who  interprets  and  enforces  the  law  of  Christ  will 
doubtless  above  all  else  need  the  grace  of  fidelity,  but  il  is  a 
fidelity  that  should  be  tempered  with  the  grace  of  Christian 
sympathy  and  courtesy.  It  is  the  fidelity  of  a  Christian  gentle- 
man. 

IV.  The  Need  of  Ethical  Preaching 
The  example  of  our  Lord  may  well  suggest  the  vocation  of 
every  preacher  in  whatever  period  or  nationality  or  communion 
to  interpret  and  inculcate  the  moral  claims  of  Christianity. 
They  are  claims  that  are  always  urgent  and  they  appeal  to  the 
common  intelligence  and  conscience — to  the  common  humanity 
— of  the  race.  Christ's  preaching  was  largely  ethical.  It  had 
indeed,  for  its  back-ground  his  own  personal  revelation  of  God. 
It  had  a  distinctly  religious  basis.  It  all  centered  in  his  re- 
ligion of  grace  and  redemption,  and  it  never  strayed  beyond  its 
borders.  But  the  fact  that  Christ  was  a  preacher  of  morality 
should  never  be  ignored  or  minimized.  Christianity  is,  indeed, 
in  its  substance  far  more  than  "sublimated  ethics,"  and  Christ 
is  far  more  than  an  ethical  teacher  and  guide.  But  while 
Christianity  is    grounded  in    religion,    it    ultimates  in    moral 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  219 

character  and  moral  life,  and  the  ethical  factor  is  of  supreme 
significance.  Christ's  preaching  is  not  only  broadly  but  specifi- 
cally ethical.  It  deals  with  fundamental  and  wide-reaching 
principles,  principles  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  all  worthy  human 
character  and  conduct  and  are  universally  valid,  but  it  does 
not  lose  itself  in  general  principles.  It  applies  them  to  de- 
terminate lines  of  conduct  and  to  specific  acts.  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  which  is  from  beginning  to  end  an  ethical  dis- 
course or  a  compendium  of  ethical  expositions  and  inculca- 
tions, does  not  lose  itself  in  generahties.  It  deals,  indeed,  with 
the  broad  features  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and  with  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  righteous  character  and  conduct  in  its  sub- 
jects, but  it  applies  these  principles  to  the  details  of  practical 
life.  If  Christ  had  given  himself  simply  to  the  task  of  laying 
down  ethical  principles  for  the  subjects  of  his  kingdom,  he 
would  have  appeared  in  the  role  of  the  ethical  philosopher. 
But  he  adapted  his  moral  teachings  to  specific  needs  and  obli- 
gations, as  conditioned  by  the  specific  relations  of  his  hearers. 
In  this  he  showed  himself  to  be  the  preacher  and  proved  that 
he  had  the  conscious  vocation  of  the  preacher.  It  is  a  funda- 
mental homiletic  principle  that  preaching  shall  adapt  itself  to 
the  present,  specific  needs  of  individual  men  and  classes  of 
men.  Christ  recognized  this  principle,  and  in  this  he  is  the 
preacher's  example  although  he  is  far  more  than  a  homiletic 
model.  There  is  doubtless  a  large  field  for  ethical  preaching 
of  a  somewhat  general  and  comprehensive  character.  Charac- 
ter building,  in  a  broad  and  inclusive  sense,  is  a  problem  with 
which  the  modern  pulpit  in  its  theories  of  religious  and  ethical 
life  deals  more  largely  than  the  pulpit  of  other  days.  Such 
preaching  will  deal  with  general  ethical  principles,  it  will  be 
positive  and  affirmative,  rather  than  critical  and  negative;  it 
will  trust  to  the  development  of  time  for  its  results;  it  will 
deal  with  ethical  exposition  rather  than  with  ethical  inculca- 
tion, and  in  general  it  will  move  far  from  the  realm  of  ethical 


220  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

polemics.  Ethical  preaching  of  this  sort,  as  illustrated  by  such 
preachers  as  the  late  Canon  James  B.  Mozley,  is  of  the  most 
fruitful  and  ennobling  character.  But  the  ethical  preaching  of 
our  day  cannot  linger  wholly  in  this  broad  field.  There  is 
urgent  need  in  our  time,  and  especially  perhaps  in  this  country, 
of  a  more  specific  and  critical  type  of  ethical  preaching.  The 
conditions  of  life  demand  it.  There  is  need  of  more  searching 
work  with  the  conscience.  The  pulpit  itself  needs  it,  in  the 
interest  of  its  own  virility  and  moral  power  in  the  community. 
Ethical  preaching  that  is  definite,  critical,  searching,  is  manly, 
straightforward  preaching,  and  it  should  do  much  in  securing 
the  pulpit  from  a  onesided  intellectualism  or  didacticism  on  the 
one  hand,  and  from  an  over-emotional  or  sentimental  quality 
on  the  other  hand. 

But  the  thing  to  be  accentuated  here  is  the  practical  moral 
needs  of  men  in  our  day  and  especially  in  their  associate  lives. 
The  vast  field  of  social  ethics  is  open  to  the  pulpit  as  never  be- 
fore. One  shrinks  from  entering  this  field  with  his  homiletic 
nostrum,  or  with  his  professional  advice,  and  especially  with 
his  critical  polemic  against  the  evils  of  his  day.  For  one  runs 
the  risk  of  seeming  to  look  too  exclusively  at  the  dark  side  of 
life,  of  undervaluing  the  good  that  lingers  and  still  reigns  and 
of  seeming  to  sanction  a  negative  and  belligerent  attitude  to- 
wards the  community  of  which  he  is  a  part.  But  let  us  look 
fairly  at  the  field  and  see  straight  and  listen  as  we  look  to  the 
summons  that  calls  for  the  prophetic  voice. 

Beginning  with  the  church,  what  do  we  find  here  ?  A  living 
Christianity  still,  no  doubt.  Vast  philanthrophy  and  enter- 
prising activity  unlimited.  But  in  much  it  is  a  Christianity  that 
caricatures  the  religion  of  Christ.  As  represented  by  the 
church,  the  Christian  life  is  notably  defective  with  respect  to 
ethical  comprehensiveness.  It  is  such  in  every  age  no  doubt, 
for  that  which  is  complete  is  far  away.  But  it  is  a  defect  that 
is  exceptionally  characteristic  of  the  church  life  of  our  day. 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  221 

The  active  Christian  virtues  are  many  of  them  cultivated. 
Christian  benevolence  in  an  eminent  degree.  Perhaps  the 
present  surpasses  all  other  periods  in  the  scope  of  its  benevo- 
lent activities.  But  it  is  a  onesided  development.  The  prin- 
ciple, the  law  of  self-denial  for  others'  sake,  which  is  the  very 
heart  of  Christian  benevolence,  is  not  cultivated  comprehen- 
sively. Many  forms  of  selfishness,  sometimes  refined,  but 
often  gross  and  coarse,  mar  the  symmetry  of  Christian  char- 
acter and  corrupt  and  cripple  the  life  of  the  church.  Selfish- 
ness in  the  form  of  self-assertion.  The  grace  of  humility  is 
not  carefully  and  delicately  cultivated.  It  is  an  age  when  man 
is  exalted.  Our  fathers  exalted  God,  in  his  greatness,  maj- 
esty, righteousness,  and  holiness.  The  littleness,  the  weakness, 
and  sinfulness  of  men  was  proportionally  accentuated.  An 
erroneous  because  a  onesided  estimate  of  man  no  doubt  it  was. 
But  the  age  has  swung  to  the  opposite  extreme.  And  we  need 
a  type  of  ethical  preaching  that  will  recall  the  fact  of  human 
weakness,  and  perversity  and  guilt,  that  will  lead  men  to  see 
their  littleness  and  meanness  and  sinfulness,  and  that  will  pro- 
mote the  nurture  of  humility. 

Selfishness  in  the  form  of  unreined  ambition  has  invaded 
church  life.  The  political  spirit  is  not  an  unfamiliar  mani- 
festation in  the  church,  the  spirit  of  intrigue,  the  spirit  that 
seeks  to  accomplish  desired  ends  by  subtle  indirection,  by 
manipulating  majorities  in  the  deliberative  assembly,  rather 
than  by  open,  free  and  manly  Christian  discussion ;  the  spirit 
that  would  vote  up  or  vote  down  by  sheer  numerical  force 
some  of  the  gravest  questions  that  concern  the  interests  of 
God's  kingdom.  In  political  life  the  wire-puller  and  the  party 
boss  sneer  at  debate  and  at  the  intelligent  deliberations  of  the 
representative  assembly,  set  at  naught  the  opinions  and  inter- 
ests, the  will  and  the  suffrages  of  responsible  citizens  and  seek 
to  carry  the  most  important  questions  of  legislation,  or  meas- 
ures that  are  not  worthy  to  be  brought  to  the  attention  of  any 


222  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

civilized  legislative  assembly,  by  a  species  of  bulldozing,  by 
"fixing"  votes  through  caucus  pressure,  or  by  "trading," 
or  by  bribery.  And  something  of  this  spirit  the 
church  has  caught,  not  in  its  most  corrupt  and  degraded  and 
degrading  forms,  of  course.  But  with  too  much  truth  it  may 
be  charged,  as  it  has  been  charged,  that  some  of  our  ecclesias- 
tical assemblies  manipulate  the  suffrages  of  its  members  rather 
than  carry  their  measures  by  the  power  of  argument  and  per- 
suasion. And  at  times  they  have  ceased  to  be  deliberative  as- 
semblies. Votes  that  are  won  by  a  species  of  caucus  manipu- 
lation sometimes  displace  the  suffrages  of  rational  and  respon- 
sible men.  And  all  this  in  the  name  of  Christ  and  in  the  name 
of  the  church  and  of  the  kingdom  of  God !  Denominational 
rivalries  in  decadent  rural  communities  perpetuate  the  un- 
economic folly  and  the  moral  disgrace  of  ecclesiastical  schism 
that  is  to  a  considerable  extent  responsible  for  the  decreasing 
power  of  religion  and  for  its  failure  to  meet  the  higher  needs 
of  men  and  to  promote  the  general  moral  welfare  of  society. 
Metropolitan  churches  compete  for  financial  leadership,  for 
numerical  supremacy,  for  social  prestige,  and  preachers  are 
sometimes  crushed  by  the  exactions  of  this  ecclesiastical 
ambition  or  are  demoralized  by  its  tax  upon  the  sensation- 
alism that  supports  and  perpetuates  the  unholy  competition. 
The  commercial  spirit  is  in  the  churches.  Men  of  unsavory 
repute  in  business  life  have  leadership  in  their  councils,  and 
institutional  prosperity  is  often  substituted  for  vital  religious 
welfare. 

Selfishness  in  little  things  that  compromises  the  grace  of 
Christian  fidelity,  and  that  issues  in  thoughtless  neglect  or  in 
deUberate  repudiation  of  the  claims  of  the  Christian  covenant 
is  well-nigh  universal  in  Protestant  Christendom.  Selfish- 
ness in  the  form  of  self-indulgence  is  wide  spread  and  most 
baleful  in  its  power  of  demoralization  and  corruption.  It  is, 
indeed,  very  common  and  it  is  very  easy  to  give  money  for 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  223 

objects  of  charity  and  benevolence.  People  have  more  to 
give,  indefinitely  more  than  our  fathers  had,  and  the  habit 
of  giving  is  general.  But  it  is  also  increasingly  common  for 
members  of  Christ's  church  to  pamper  themselves.  The  old- 
fashioned  virtue  of  economy,  the  companion  virtue  of  thrift, 
which  was  the  pride  of  our  fathers,  is  no  longer  widely  cul- 
tivated. There  is  lavish  freedom  and  unlimited  range  in 
expenditure  for  worldly  indulgences,  which  cut  into  the  spirit- 
ual life  of  the  church.  There  is  a  vast  amount  of  fashionable 
conventionalism,  of  social  insincerity,  of  ostentatious  vanity 
and  of  vulgar  display  even  in  ecclesiastical  circles  among  the 
American  people.  "The  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye 
and  the  vain  glory  of  life"  abound  in  our  day  as  of  old.  Peo- 
ple are  not  content  to  live  simply.  "High  thinking  and  plain 
living"  were  the  characteristic  virtues  of  our  fathers.  We 
have  lost  much  of  their  homely  manhood.  Despite  our  liberal- 
ity in  giving,  despite  our  increasing  practical  as  well  as  theo- 
retic interest  in  social  and  industrial  questions,  there  is  still 
in  the  churches  of  the  land  a  vast  amount  of  indifference  to 
the  needs,  the  wrongs  and  the  sufferings  of  the  unblessed 
classes.  It  is  easier  to  give  money  than  to  go  out  of  one's 
way  to  look  up  and  personally  to  interest  one's  self  in  those 
whose  chief  need  is  human  sympathy  and  who  might  be 
reached  and  blessed  thereby. 

Looking  again  at  domestic  life,  do  we  not  find  scope  for 
ethical  preaching  of  most  searching  sort?  The  Lord's  day  is 
not  what  it  once  was  in  the  life  of  the  family.  One  can  not 
very  well  magnify  or  defend  many  aspects  of  the  old  Puritan 
Sabbath.  Its  observance  was  wrong  in  theory  and  in  many 
respects  in  practice.  Too  much  emphasis  was  put  uoon  the 
external  religious  sanctions  of  the  day,  if  it  be  permissible  to 
speak  of  any  sanction  as  religious  which  is  external.  Too 
little  stress  was  laid  upon  its  moral  and  in  general  its  prac- 
tical as  well  as   inwardly   religious   significance  and  value. 


224  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

But  with  all  its  defects  it  was  a  day  of  power  in  the  life  of 
the  family.  The  secularizing  of  the  day,  lack  of  respect  for 
its  moral  and  religious  meaning,  loss  of  its  opportunities,  ne- 
glect of  its  institutions  and  failure  relatively  to  differentiate 
it  from  other  days  in  the  habits  of  domestic  life  have  had 
very  serious  results  in  the  homes  of  the  people.  One  thing 
is  sure ;  it  would  be  a  most  beneficent  thing  if  the  pulpits  of 
this  country  were  to  direct  attention  to  and  to  advocate  more 
fully  and  more  forcibly  the  immense  practical  value  of  the 
Lord's  day  for  family  life.  There  is,  it  is  to  be  feared,  a 
general  neglect  of  family  worship,  and  consequent  loss  of 
that  staying  and  sanctifying  power  that  is  necessary  to  pro- 
tect the  modern  household  against  the  corruptions  of  life. 
Religious  teaching,  nurture,  training,  discipline,  is  at  dis- 
count in  the  domestic  circle.  We  find  a  measurable  loss  of 
a  sense  of  the  domestic  vocation.  Those  household  virtues 
that  are  necessary  to  fit  one  for  the  larger  and  more  res- 
ponsible place  in  civic  and  ecclesiastical  life  are  not  ade- 
quately cultivated.  Extravagance  in  family  life  abounds. 
Lax  ideas  of  marriage  and  of  divorce  threaten  the  very  ex- 
istence of  the  family.  All  this  suggests  lines  of  ethical  teach- 
ing, and  admonition  relative  to  family  life  that  are  urgently 
demanded. 

Looking  at  commercial  life,  what  do  we  see?  Not,  as  has 
been  claimed,  an  essentially  corrupt  system,  in  accordance 
with  which  the  business  of  the  world  is  conducted.  Corrupt 
business  men  cannot  successfully  plead  that  they  are  the  prod- 
uct of  a  corrupt  system.  They  are  the  product  of  a  cor- 
rupt commercial  greed  and  ambition,  not  of  essentially  vicious 
commercial  principles.  The  principle  of  competition  is  not 
vicious.  The  social  foundations  are  not  wholly  awry.  Methods 
are  corrupt,  procedure  is  corrupt  only  because  men  are  cor- 
rupt. There  are  thousands  of  business  men  who  keep  their 
commercial  integrity — who  are  not  conscious  of  working  un- 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  225 

der  a  vicious  system,  and  who  know  that  they  are  not  tempted 
simply  by  being  brought  into  antagonism  with  competition. 
What  we  behold  is  a  habit  of  commercial  recklessness,  wide- 
reaching  in  its  wreckage  of  character  and  reputation,  that  is 
the  product  of  human  greed.  We  see  the  looting  of  banks 
and  of  business  corporations,  the  ruin  of  railroad  stocks,  in 
men's  insane  self-indulgence  and  in  their  ambition  to  store 
colossal  private  fortunes ;  the  dishonest  handling  of  trust 
moneys,  product  of  the  gambling  spirit  of  commercial  spec- 
ulation, by  men  who  have  the  nerve  to  attempt  to  vindicate 
their  diversion  of  other  men's  properties  from  legitimate 
uses,  as  a  species  of  philanthropy.  We  see  the  ambitions 
of  wealthy  men  to  control  the  industries  and  the  markets; 
we  see  them  over-reaching,  circumventing,  crowding,  crush- 
ing, ruining  their  competitors,  without  an  apparent  twinge 
of  conscience,  without  an  emotion  of  human  pity  in  their 
breasts  or  a  blush  upon  their  faces.  And  these  are  men  too, 
that  hold  places  of  trust  and  honor  in  the  churches  of  Christ, 
men,  some  of  them  clean  in  their  private  morals,  but  without 
a  commercial  or  a  social  conscience,  and  others  of  them  no- 
torious for  their  moral  lasciviousness  and  general  corruption 
of  personal  character.  We  see  reckless  stock  gambling,  the 
bribery  of  legislatures,  attempted  bribery  even  of  the  judici- 
ary, the  retaining  of  prominent  lawyers  by  public  utility  cor- 
porations to  keep  them  within  the  technical  limits  of  the  law, 
and  to  save  them  in  their  ravage  of  other  men's  property, 
from  the  penitentiary.  We  witness  the  paying  of  tribute  by 
wealthy  corporations  to  political  bosses  in  compensation  for 
legislative  privileges,  which  are  knocked  off  at  auction  by 
men.  who  themselves  may  owe  their  legislative  offices  to  the 
commercialized  political  influence  of  these  same  corrupt  boss 
leaders  of  men ;  we  see  unblushing  bribery  in  elections  by 
these  conscienceless  political  charlatans,  and  by  corporations 
that  are  financially  interested  in  the  choice  of  candidates  .to 


226  THE    WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

public  ottice.  We  see  the  practical  bribery  of  Congress  by  the 
protected  industries  of  the  country  in  behalf  of  increase,  or 
"stand  pat"  defense  of  schedules  of  duty ;  we  see  a  cynical 
indifference  on  the  part  of  wealthy  lordlings  and  world- 
mongers  with  respect  to  the  unblessed  classes,  and  in  reac- 
tion we  see  these  classes  themselves  deteriorating  in  man- 
hood, perverting  the  standards  of  industry,  combining,  and 
recklessly  plotting  against  public  order  and  all  unwittingly 
against  their  own  higher  interests.  Has  the  pulpit  of  the 
country  no  vocation?  Has  it  no  voice,  as  against  such  cor- 
ruptions, corruptions  that  endanger  the  very  existence  of 
the  republic? 

If  we  look  at  political  life  more  specifically,  and  not  wholly 
in  its  commercial  aspects,  we  find  the  rule  of  party  that 
often  discredits  honest  ]>atri()tism.  that  with  hypocritical  pre- 
tence and  with  the  swagger  of  loud-mouthed  bluster  prates 
of  its  Americanism,  that  agitates  in  the  national  legislative 
assemblies  with  jingo  recklessness  unto  the  disturbance  of 
international  harmony,  that  exalts  notoriously  corrupt  men 
into  positions  of  public  trust  and  holds  them  there,  that  dis- 
credits the  [jatriotism  of  high-minded  citizens,  who  insist 
upon  the  right  of  honest  voting;  when  men  of  independent 
character  are  nominated  by  unpartisan  citizenship,  it  cries  out ; 
"We  cannot  afford  to  have  the  precedent  established  that  a 
handful  of  citizens  can  go  ahead  and  make  nominations  re- 
gardless of  the  nominating  machinery  of  our  party."  And 
thus  it  comes  about  that  the  party  standard  is  elevated  above 
the  Christian  standard  of  citizenship  and  political  morality. 
We  find  political  parties  carried  into  power  upon  the  basis  of 
promises  issued  in  political  platforms  that  are  shamelessly 
disregarded  in  subsecjuent  political  action,  the  fulfillment  of 
which  in  fact  was  never  honestly  intended.  And  intelligent 
and  honest  Christian  citizens  are  expected  to  stand  this  and 
they  do  stand   it.  and  despite  the   rapid  development  of   in- 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  227 

dependent  citizenship,  there  are  too  few  still  to  withstand  it. 
We  find  the  lobby  and  we  find  notorious  lobbyists  elevated  to 
important  places  of  public  trust.  The  boss  and  the  bulldozer 
and  the  briber  have  been  let  loose  and  party  allegiance  has 
turned  the  government  away  from  some  of  the  most  cher- 
ished traditions  of  our  fathers. 

And  then  if  we  look  at  the  newspaper  press,  we  see  in 
many  of  its  representatives,  a  reflection  of  the  lower  tastes 
of  the  populace,  and  unblushing  defiance  of  the  higher  senti- 
ments and  higher  morality  of  the  civilized  portion  of  the 
community.  We  see  more  than  a  facile  tolerance  of  evils 
that  should  be  nameless  and  hidden.  Phases  of  life  that 
all  decent  people  should  agree  to  relegate  into  silence  and 
obscurity  are  paraded  in  a  dirty  species  of  literature  that 
masquerades  under  the  guise  of  what  calls  itself  realism. 
Private  vices  are  exploited  by  filthy  realism  and  are  pictured 
to  the  imagination  in  a  low  type  of  pictorial  or  descriptive 
art  unto  the  degradation  of  the  moral  tastes  and  sentiments 
and  conviction  of  youths.  And  this  unblushing  indecency 
calls  itself  enterprising  journalism!  We  see  here  a  greed 
for  coarse  sensation,  a  taste  for  low,  coarse,  grotesque  drollery, 
misnamed  humor,  a  relish  for  the  insinuations  of  evil  that  are 
often  worse  than  open  slander,  and  we  find  here  a  shameless 
invasion  of  the  sanctities  of  the  home  and  of  the  rights  of 
personal  manhood  and  womanhood. 

These  are  some  of  the  objective  points  towards  which  ethi- 
cal preaching  may  well  be  judiciously  directed.  It  may  seem 
a  dark  picture  that  has  been  given.  It  is  a  picture  which, 
even  if  only  approximately  correct,  may  easily  suggest  the 
question  whether  the  moral  stamina  of  the  American  people 
be  not  already  to  a  large  extent  undermined,  and  its  moral 
fibre  already  in  process  of  very  distinct  deterioration.  The 
question  has  already  been  raised  and  to  some,  indeed  to 
many,  it  has  seemed  to  be  true  of  no  inconsiderable  section 


228  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

of  the  American  people.  But,  of  course,  there  is  a  better 
side  that  no  broad-minded,  large-hearted,  generous-spirited 
preacher  will  permit  himself  to  ignore  or  forget.  People  are 
often  not  so  bad  as  they  seem,  and  are  often  better  in  their 
individual  than  in  their  associate  lives.  Reckless  violence  is 
better  than  dry  rot.  There  is  rallying  and  staying  power 
still  left.  Looking  at  the  Christian  section  of  the  nation,  with 
all  its  defects,  there  is  ground  for  hope.  A  genuine  Chris- 
tianity, the  Christianity  of  Christ,  is  still  represented  by  the 
church  and  the  influence  thereof  is  still  very  great.  The 
preacher  who  would  come  to  his  fellow  men  with  a  message 
of  hope  will  have  no  sympathy  with  that  wholesale  denun- 
ciation of  the  church  which  comes  from  a  class  of  men  that 
have  lost  their  footing  and  who  deny  that  the  church  is 
entitled  to  the  claim  to  represent  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth. 

What  has  been  said  is  simply  to  indicate  that  the  depart- 
ment of  social  ethics  furnishes  an  abundant  sphere  for  the 
work  of  the  pulpit  on  the  critical  side.  There  is  no  need, 
however,  that  the  evils  sketched  be  the  object  of  direct  po- 
lemic attack.  The  question  of  method  is  an  independent 
question.  It  may  be  possible  to  present  the  positive  side  and 
to  bring  these  evils  to  the  light  and  to  place  them  in  judgment 
before  it.  The  value  of  the  ethical  polemic  will  depend  on 
many  things,  on  its  tone,  its  skill,  its  form,  relative  infre- 
quence,  upon  who  handles  it,  and  when  and  where  and  how. 
The  young  preacher  has  perhaps,  hardly  the  requisite  ob- 
servation and  experience  of  the  moral  evils  of  his  time  and 
may  lack  the  trained  skill  requisite  to  the  most  effective  work 
in  this  line.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  advisable  that,  in  the  early 
period  of  his  ministry  he  should  preach  to  any  very  consid- 
erable extent  upon  these  social  evils.  At  least  it  may  well  be 
only  an  occasional  task.  It  is  easily  overdone.  There  is  a 
large  field  for  ethical  preaching  that  lies  outside  the  ethical 


THE  ETHICAL  TYPE  229 

polemic.  The  inculcation  of  Christian  duties  and  virtues  as 
related  to  individual  life  and  to  the  more  limited  sphere  of  as- 
sociate life  may  well  be  a  large  part  of  one's  ordinary  preach- 
ing. Attack  on  social  evils  that  appear  on  the  wider  fields 
of  life  may  well  be  reserved  for  exceptional  occasions,  and 
when  attempted  it  should  be  done  with  a  merciless  thorough- 
ness, and  with  full  command  of  facts. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  EVANGELISTIC  TYPE 
I.     The   Conception   of   Evangelistic   Preaching 
It  is  the  presentation  of  the  Gospel  with  reference  to  the 
immediate,  definite  result  of  winning  men  to  the  allegiance  of 
Christ.     It  presupposes  some  knowledge  of   Christ   on  the 
part  of  the  hearer,  and  is,  therefore,  to  be  distinguished  from 
missionary  preaching.     All   forms   of   "mission   preaching," 
whose  object  is  to  convince  men  of  the  truth  of  Christianity 
and  of  the  reasonableness  of  Christ's  claim  to  their  allegiance 
and  to  persuade  them  to  accept  such  allegiance  may  be  re- 
garded, as  it  is  by  German  preachers,  as  belonging  in  a  com- 
prehensive sense  to  the  evangelistic  type  of  preaching.     It  is 
at  once  apologetic  and  evangelistic,  apologetic  in  its  imme- 
diate   method,    evangelistic    in    its    ultimate    aim.      English 
preachers    sometimes    classify    apologetic    with    evangelistic 
preaching.     Its  object  being  to  convince  the  mind,  and  by 
such  convincing  to  lay  the   foundation  for  such  persuasion 
as  will  win  men  in  personal  allegiance  to  Christ,  it  "should 
be  penetrated    with  an    evangelistic  spirit."     In    discussing 
evangelistic  preaching  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  deals  to  a  considerable 
extent  with  methods  of  apology.*   In  the  United  States,  how- 
ever, it  is  generally  regarded  as  belonging  distinctively  to 
the  persuasive  type  of  preaching,  whose  object  is  the  con- 
quest of  the  will,  rather  than  to  the  apologetic  type,  whose 
aim  is  primarily  to  convince  the  mind.     It  is  assumed  that 
the  work  of  convincing  has  already  been  accomplished.     But 

♦Nine  Lectures  on   Preaching,  Lecture  VIL     Evangelistic  Preach- 
ing pp.  182-282. 


THE   EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  231 

it  is  a  specific  kind  of  persuasive  preaching.  In  the  compre- 
hensive sense  all  preaching,  as  has  already  been  frequently 
intimated,  must  be  persuasive.  No  apologetic  preaching 
can  be  effective  which  is  not  persuasive.  Paracletic  preach- 
ing, as  dealing  w^ith  the  promises  and  comfort  of  the  Gospel 
is  nothing  if  not  persuasive.  All  ethical  preaching,  which 
aims  to  bring  the  will  into  subjection  to  the  Christian  law  of 
righteousness,  is  in  its  very  conception  persuasive.  All  re- 
vival preaching,  which  would  promote  religious  awakening, 
seeking  thus  to  refresh  the  spiritual  and  moral  life  of  the 
church,  as  well  as  the  conversion  of  men,  must  be  charac- 
teristically persuasive.  But  the  evangeUstic  type  of  preaching 
is  persuasive  in  the  specific  sense  that  it  aims  at  the  im- 
mediate result  of  winning  men  in  faith  and  obedience  to  the 
personal  acceptance  of  Christ  as  their  redeemer  and  master. 
To  summarize  then ;  Defined  as  to  its  subject  matter,  it  is  the 
presentation  of  the  Gospel  message  of  grace.  It  deals  with 
the  very  heart  of  Christianity.  It  may  have  great  range  and 
variety  of  content,  but  it  all  centres  in  the  great  message. 
This  is  doubtless  the  original  substance  of  Christian  preach- 
ing. It  is  nearest  the  original  apostoHc  type  of  preaching 
and  nearest  the  original  message  of  our  Lord.  Defined  as  to 
its  object,  it  is  to  win  men  to  the  discipleship  of  faith,  repen- 
tances, obedience  and  love  by  the  power  of  persuasive  speech 
or  by  the  presentation  of  appropriate  motives,  with  such  ef- 
fectiveness as  to  persuade  them  to  yield  to  the  grace  and  au- 
thority of  Christ. 

II.  The  Need  of  Pastoral  Evangelism 
Whether  the  church  in  our  day  needs  the  evangelist  who  is 
not  a  pastor  may  be  an  open  question.  There  is  doubtless  a 
place  for  the  professional  evangelist.  But  his  value  will  de- 
pend on  the  kind  of  evangelist  he  is.  It  is  not,  however,  my 
purpose  to  discuss  this  question.     The  sure  thing  is,  and  it 


232  THE   WORK    OF   THE    PREACHER 

can  be  no  open  question,  that  we  do  need  the  pastor  who  is 
also  an  evang^ehst,  or  at  least  who  can  preach  evangelistically. 
Every  man  who  enters  the  Christian  ministry  should  train 
himself  to  preach  thus.  It  is  a  serious  mistake  for  a  minister 
to  spend  time  in  pursuits  that  are  of  secondary  importance  to 
him  as  a  minister  and  to  neglect  his  message.  It  is  his  first 
duty  to  learn  to  handle  the  Gospel  of  Christ  effectively.  It 
is  not  creditable  to  him  that  his  church  should  be  obliged  to 
look  to  a  special  class  of  men  for  this  type  of  service.  The 
churches  have  to  a  large  extent  lost  faith  in  the  ability  of 
educated  ministers  to  do  the  work  of  the  evangelist.  In  a 
general,  wide-reaching  religious  movement  in  a  community, 
the  services  of  the  right  sort  of  professional  evangelist  are 
without  doubt  of  great  value.  But  this  should  never  super- 
sede the  evangelism  of  ordinary  pastoral  service.  Upon  the 
question  before  us,  I  suggest  the  following  considerations. 

I.  The  demand  for  pastoral  evangelism  is  involved  in 
the  claims  of  Christianity  upon  men,  Christ  presents  himself 
as  an  object  to  be  received  in  an  act  of  personal  allegiance. 
The  beginning  of  practical,  working  relations  with  Christ  is 
an  act  of  faith.  No  man  makes  a  beginning  with  the  claims 
of  the  Gospel  upon  his  allegiance  without  a  willing  response 
to  it.  All  other  demands  presuppose  this.  All  preaching 
that  presents  the  weighty  truths  of  Christianity  with  reference 
to  edification  or  moral  incentive  assumes  a  discipleship  al- 
ready secured  by  the  presentation  in  some  way  of  the  claims 
of  the  Gospel  upon  personal  allegiance.  The  first  thing,  not 
the  last  thing,  then,  for  a  minister  to  do  for  those  who  have 
not  entered  upon  Christian  discipleship  is  to  present  Christ 
to  them  as  an  object  (jf  personal  faith  and  allegiance.  This, 
of  course,  may  be  done,  and  done  eflfectively  in  connection 
with  the  processes  of  Christian  nurture.  But  so  long  as  there 
are  those  in  any  congregation,  who  have  grown  to  maturity 
without  having  entered  upon  the  life  of  Qiristian  discipleship, 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  233 

so  long  will  there  be  a  demand  for  some  form  of  the  evange- 
Hstic  type  of  preaching. 

2.  The  pastoral  commission  involves  the  evangelistic  com- 
mission. Edification  is  not  the  sole  pastoral  function.  The 
original  apostle  was  not  a  permanent  pastor.  He  was  an 
evangelist.  The  earliest  preaching  was  evangelistic,  not  pas- 
toral. The  original  preacher's  commission  was  that  of  the 
evangelist,  not  of  the  pastor.  Christ  chose  and  commis- 
sioned evangelists,  not  pastors.  The  pastor  was  a  later  pro- 
duct of  church  life.  A  special  class  of  men  was  needed  for 
the  work  of  spreading  Christianity.  A  special  class  may  be 
needed  in  our  day,  and  those  who  enter  upon  such  a  work 
must  vindicate  their  calling  and  prove  their  credentials  by 
their  training,  their  consecration,  their  wisdom,  their  unself- 
ish devotion,  and  by  their  success  in  their  work.  But  the 
modern  pastor  should  not  fail  to  represent,  in  some  form 
and  in  some  measure,  the  evangelism  of  the  apostle.  The 
apostle  is  a  fisher  of  men,  and  if  the  modern  pastoral 
preacher  represents  in  any  worthy  material  sense  what  is 
left  of  the  evangelistic  phase  of  the  apostoHc  commission, 
he  can  not  cease  to  be  a  fisher  of  men.  The  flock  of  God 
must  be  fed,  but  those  who  are  not  of  the  Good  Shepherd's 
fold  must  also  be  won.  Building  up  and  gathering  in  should 
go  on  together,  and  the  gathering  in  can  not  be  effected 
wholly  by  the  slow  processes  of  Christian  nurture.  The 
church  receives  those  whom  Christ  receives,  and  who  re- 
ceive him,  and  those  who  receive  him  are  not  all  nurtured 
into  his  grace.  Many,  indeed,  who  enter  the  church  from 
the  catechetical  class  are  brought  to  the  conscious  reception 
of  Christ  by  the  presentation  of  his  claims  evangelistically. 
More  of  the  subjects  of  Christian  nurture  might  enter  the 
church  with  a  more  thorough  consecration  to  Christ  and  to 
his  church,  if  these  claims  were  more  definitely  and  urgently 
presented.     But  what  shall  we  say  of  those  who  have  long 


234  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

been  under  the  power  of  evil  habit  and  who  need  the  presen- 
tation of  stirring  motives?  This  class  is  increasing  even 
while  the  work  of  religious  education  is  enlarging  its  scope. 
The  pulpit  will  lose  power  with  the  church  and  with  the  com- 
munity if  it  is  untrue  to  its  evangelistic  commission. 

3.  The  needs  of  the  ministry  are  involved  here.  We  talk 
about  the  homiletic  mind.  It  should  be  understood  that  this 
involves  the  evangelistic  mind.  The  cultivation  of  the  evan- 
gelistic mind,  as  a  part  of  one's  general  homiletic  culture, 
would  have  a  beneficial  elTect  in  various  ways  upon  one's 
ministry.  It  would  aid  one  in  discriminating  as  to  the  prac- 
tical importance  of  the  themes  he  presents  from  the  pulpit. 
The  evangelistic  mind  is  a  source  of  evangelistic  divination. 
It  is  the  evangelistic  preacher  who  will  deal  with  the  very 
heart  of  the  Gospel.  One  may  indeed  not  always  know  what 
the  heart  of  the  Gospel  is.  One  may  fancy  he  has  it.  when  he 
has  it  not.  He  may  cultivate  the  "Gospel  of  Going  On"  in- 
stead of  the  Gospel  of  staying  with  Christ.  But  the  true  evan- 
gelistic mind  involves  a  condition  of  insight  into  the  Gospel, 
and  whatever  one's  apprehensions  or  misapprehensions  as  to 
the  Gospel,  it  is  this  that  he  wants.  No  by-play  for  this  man. 
He  will  have,  he  must  have,  a  Gospel  of  promise  and  hope 
and  help  that  can  be  preached  and  must  be  preached.  The 
pastor  who  cultivates  the  evangelistic  habit  of  mind  is  pretty 
sure  to  find  himself  led  toward  an  evangelistic  centre  and  he 
will  not  be  content  to  play  upon  the  outskirts.  It  has  often 
been  this  man  with  an  evangelistic  mind  that  has  rediscovered 
the  Gospel  for  the  pulpit.  Luther  had  it,  and  he  was  an  evan- 
gelistic preacher,  such  as  of  necessity,  and  it  was  he  who  redis- 
covered the  Gospel  of  redemption.  When  theology  becomes 
petrified  and  can  be  no  longer  successfully  preached,  who  is 
it  that  comes  to  the  front  with  a  new  way  of  stating  old  truths, 
or  even  with  a  new  theology  that  can  be  preached?  It  is  the 
evangelistic  preacher.     Take  the  case  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 


THE   EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  235 

He  made  the  theology  of  his  day  more  preachable  and  he 
preached  it  with  amazing  power.  Take  the  case  of  the  Ten- 
nants  in  the  Presbyterian  church.  These  men  were  "new 
light"  men.  They  were  antagonized  by  the  men  of  pastoral 
routine  and  of  orthodox  conformity.  But  they  preached  with 
new  power,  because  they  on  the  whole  got  a  little  nearer  to 
the  heart  of  the  Gospel.  Take  the  case  of  President  Finney. 
He  too  was  a  "new  light"  man.  He  had  new  views  of  human 
accountability  and  of  every  man's  possibilities  with  the  Gos- 
pel, and  he  had  great  power  in  reaching  the  consciences  and 
wills  of  men.  It  is  not  the  true  evangelistic  mind  that  loses 
-its  grip  of  the  Gospel  of  redemption  for  needy  men,  and  that 
identifies  Christianity  with  a  species  of  "subHmated  ethics." 

It  is  this  too  that  fosters  positiveness  in  preaching.  It 
is  the  positive  tone  that  lifts  any  type  of  preaching  into 
its  best.  In  the  early  and  mid-period  of  his  ministry, 
the  evangelistic  preaching  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was 
positive  and  incisive,  and  one  fancies  that  this  was  tribu- 
tary to  positiveness  in  his  preaching  in  general.  His  didactic 
and  ethical  preaching  was  of  a  higher  order  than  it  was  sub- 
sequently. Different  types  of  preaching  influence  each  other. 
Didactic  preaching  influences  ethical  preaching  and  evangelis- 
tic preaching  influences  them  both.  The  evangelistic  mind  is 
preeminently  positive. 

It  will  elevate  the  spiritual  tone  of  one's  preaching.  It  will 
even  affect  its  rhetorical  quality  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word. 
It  is,  as  of  necessity,  definite  in  its  aim  and  is  fervid  and  sym- 
pathetic in  its  spirit.  How  can  a  habit  of  definiteness  and  of 
earnestness  and  of  sympathetic  fervor  in  one  type  of  preach- 
ing fail  to  appear  in  other  types?  And  how  shall  it  fail  to 
make  the  preacher  more  powerful  rhetorically?  How  shall 
it  fail  to  uplift  the  entire  work  of  preaching  and  the  conduct 
of  public  worship  as  well? 

And  finally  it  will  be  felt  in  the  entire  work  of  one's  minis- 


236  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

try.  It  recognizes  the  duty  of  a  minister  to  win  men  to 
Christ.  If  one's  preaching  is  wholly  unevangelistic,  the  en- 
tire work  of  the  parish  is  likely  to  correspond.  The  con- 
verse is  also  true.  And  this  spirit  of  the  herald,  of  the  fisher 
of  men,  will  lift  the  spiritual  life  of  the  whole  church  and  will 
quicken  all  its  missionary  activities.  It  will  thus  supplement 
the  educative  work  of  the  church  in  the  community.  The 
church  has  to  deal  in  our  day  with  an  increasingly  large  num- 
ber of  people,  who  can  be  reached  and  won  only  by  efforts 
whose  inspiration  is  the  very  heart  of  the  Gospel,  the  very 
heart  of  an  apostolic  ministry,  the  passion  to  rescue  men. 


III.     Evangelistic   Culture 

In  evangelistic,  as  in  all  other  types  of  preaching,  special 
gifts  will  doubtless  win  special  success.  Some  preachers  are 
unusually  gifted  with  that  power  by  which  they  easily  find 
their  way  to  the  hearts,  consciences  and  wills  of  their  hearers. 
The  great  evangelist  is  doubtless  a  special  product  and  a 
special  gift  of  and  to  the  church.  Such  a  one  is  pretty  sure 
to  find  his  way  into  the  work  of  the  professional  evangelist, 
or  into  a  pastoral  ministry  that  will  be  a  perpetual  evangelism. 
Undue  stress  is  sometimes  laid  upon  these  special  gifts.  Dr. 
R.  W.  Dale  regretfully  regarded  himself  as  deficient  in  evan- 
gelistic gifts  and  in  some  things  he  has  said  leaves  the  im- 
pression that  but  little  can  be  done  without  a  special  evange- 
listic endowment.*  This  is  rather  discouraging  to  the  preacher 
of  ordinary  equipment,  who  would  be  a  fisher  of  men.  Every 
preacher  should  cultivate,  and  may  cultivate  with  a  measure 
of  success,  such  gifts  as  he  may  have.  Any  man  who  may 
be   a   preacher  at   all   may   achieve   something  in   this   field. 

Let  us  consider  some  of  the  qualities  that  are  important  in 
this  type  of  preaching  and  that  may  and  should  be  cultivated. 

♦Yale  Lectures;  Lecture  VII.     Page  182. 


THE    EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  237 

I.     Culture  of  the  feelings  and  aflfections  is  a  necessary 
condition  of  evangelistic  power.     In  modern  religious  peda- 
gogy this  receives  a  good  deal  of  attention.     It  may  well 
receive   stronger   emphasis   in   pastoral   culture.     Culture   of 
the  feelings  and  affections  is  just  as  important  as  mental  and 
moral   culture,   and  will   show  its   results.     The   ministerial 
calling  is  prolific  of  agencies  for  such  culture.     There  is  a 
Christian  literature  that  expresses  the  strongest  and  purest 
emotions  of  the  human  heart  and  the  preacher  has  access 
to  it  as  none  other  has  or  can  have.     Christian  poetry,  and 
especially  the  religious  poetry  of  the  Bible,  enriches  the  emo- 
tional and  affectional  life.    There  are  also  the  ordinary  means 
of  personal  religious  nurture,  prayer,  meditation,  social  wor- 
ship and  Christian  intercourse  and  fellowship.    These  means 
of  grace,  which  are  the  preachers'  special  possession  in  a 
sort,  deepen  and  enrich  the  life  of  religious  sentiment  and 
feeling,  or  should  and  will  if  worthily  used.     There  is  also 
contact  with  the  sinful,  sorrowful,  suffering  world.    There  is 
nothing  Hke  famiUarity  with  the  tragedy  and  pathos  of  hu- 
man life  to  make  one  human.     Men  differ  in  their  emotional 
susceptibilities.     There  are  different  types  of  feeling,  as  there 
are  different  mental  types,  and  different  ways  of  manifesting 
feeling.    Emotion  need  not  be  mercurial  in  order  to  be  real. 
But   the   true   preacher,   and   preeminently   the    evangelistic 
preacher,  always  has  some  capacity,  whatever  the  type  or 
method  of  it,  of  being  emotionally  wrought  upon  by  those 
to    whom    he    speaks.      Successful    evangelistic    preaching 
presupposes  this.     Consider  the  object  of  the    evangelistic 
sermon.    It  is  to  reach  the  will  and  secure  action.   To  accom- 
plish this  it  is  necessary,  indeed,  to  convince  the  mind,  or 
to  be  able  to  assume  that  it  is  already  convinced,  and  to  win 
the  conscience  to  the  approval  of  the  claims  of  duty  and  to 
condemnation  of  its  neglect  or  violation.     But  more.     It  is 
necessary  to  make  the  object,  that  is  presented  as  an  object 


238  THE   WORK    OF   THE    PREACHER 

of  choice,  desirable.  This  can  only  be  done  by  awakening 
an  emotional  interest  in  it.  There  are  many  ways  of  stirring 
such  an  interest  and  of  awakening  a  sense  of  the  desirable- 
ness of  the  object  presented.  But  one  thing  is  of  supreme  im- 
portance. It  is  that  the  preacher  himself  should  be  moved 
by  the  object  he  advocates.  No  right  feeling  can  be  awak- 
ened, and  no  right  desire  quickened  in  the  hearer,  unless  the 
preacher  himself  have  the  feeling  corresponding  to  that 
which  he  would  awaken.  Capacity  for  such  feeling  can  be 
indefinitely  cultivated. 

2.  Cultivation  of  the  imagination  is  another  requisite. 
It  is  not  easy  to  make  invisible  things  real.  In  the  largest 
and  best  sense  they  are,  indeed,  native  to  us,  and  every  man 
has  some  capacity  for  the  ideal.  But  it  is  badly  overlaid  by 
the  sensuous  life.  The  invisible  can  not  be  made  real  with- 
out the  use  of  the  imagination.  The  images  of  things  visible 
represent  things  that  are  invisible,  and  such  representative 
images  move  the  emotions.  A  minister's  calling  furnishes 
abundant  material  for  the  culture  of  the  imagination.  He 
deals  with  the  ideal  side  of  human  life,  and  with  the  lofty 
ideal  realities  that  lie  beyond.  The  literature  that  is  tribu- 
tary to  his  professional  life  in  general  is  especially  tribu- 
tary to  the  culture  of  the  imagination.  Biblical  truth  is 
presented  largely  through  the  forms  of  the  imagination.  The 
Biblical  method  of  teaching  is  the  poetic  method.  The  diction 
of  our  Lord  is  poetic,  not  scientific.  Life  also  furnishes  a 
school  for  the  training  of  the  imagination.  The  preacher 
deals  with  the  dramatic  aspects  of  human  life,  with  the 
tragedy  of  sin  and  suffering,  with  the  defeats  of  life,  and  with 
its  joys  and  triumphs.  Over  against  his  ideal  life  stands 
life's  reality.  All  this  is  a  powerful  stimulant  to  the  imagina- 
tion. The  preacher  is  an  idealist ;  he  is  also  a  realist.  .\nd 
his  familiarity  with  actual  life,  not  less  than  with  ideal  life 
necessitates  the  culture  of  the  imagination.     In  this  prosaic 


THE   EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  239 

world    of    actuality    this    ideal    realist    may    be    a    moving 
force. 

3.  The  culture  of  moral  earnestness  is  of  central  signifi- 
cance. Note  some  of  its  elements.  Sincerity  is  the  heart  of 
it.  Moral  earnestness  can  not  be  successfully  simulated. 
The  speech  of  the  insincere  man  will  bewray  him,  and  this 
will  be  fatal  to  any  man  who  undertakes  to  preach  evange- 
listically.  The  self-seeker  can  not  win  men.  A  positive,  en- 
terprising, aspiring  man  is  exposed  to  the  temptation  to  self- 
seeking.  One  must  live  on  guard  and  cultivate  an  unselfish 
temper  of  mind.  Nothing,  except  positive,  open  vice,  will 
so  soon  destroy  the  influence  of  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel 
as  any  disclosure  of  personal  selfishness.  No  one  ever 
doubted  the  entire  sincerity  of  Mr.  Dwight  L.  Moody,  and 
here  was  one  of  the  sources  of  his  power.  The  professional 
evangelist  especially  is  exposed  to  the  temptation  to  self- 
seeking,  and  particularly  the  temptation  to  self-aggrandize- 
ment. 

Elevation  and  cheerfulness  of  spirit  is  another  element. 
One  who  lives  in  his  emotions,  who  is  earnest  to  win  men, 
but  especially  one  who  is  earnest  to  win  success  in  his  efforts, 
is  likely  to  be  subject  to  revulsions  of  feeling.  If  he  does 
not  succeed  according  to  his  expectations  he  may  easily  fall 
into  the  habit  of  complaining.  Professional  evangelists  are 
greaty  exposed  to  this  temptation.  They  complain  of  the 
deadness  of  the  church,  with  much  reason  doubtless,  and 
they  have  a  very  lively  sense  of  human  depravity.  But  the 
true  fisher  of  men  will  live  on  guard  against  a  censorious 
spirit  and  a  bitter  tongue,  for  they  will  cripple  his  power.  No 
man  needs  so  cheerful  a  soul  as  the  one  who  is  bent  on 
winning  men  to  Christ.  The  discouragements  are  very 
great.  One  will  need  all  the  hopefulness  and  kindliness  and 
sweetness  of  temper  he  can  command.  It  is  all  necessary  to 
his  moral  earnestness. 


240  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

Force  of  will  is  another  element.  Men  must  be  made  to 
feel  the  strength  of  the  preacher's  purpose.  There  is  a 
mighty  contagion  in  a  consecrated  resolution.  Of  course, 
this  is  something  that  can  not  be  paraded.  One  must  be 
adroit  as  well  as  resolute.  But  one's  purpose  must  be  felt. 
He  who  would  succeed  in  winning  men  must  learn  to  handle 
men.  This  ability  may  be  cultivated  by  any  man  who  has  the 
gift  of  a  leader.  One  must  be  able  to  rally  men.  He  must 
concentrate  his  force  upon  the  one  point  towards  which  he 
aims  and  drive  for  it  with  all  possible  energy.  Men  will  feel 
the  power  of  such  a  man.  and  he  will  win  their  respect  and  con- 
fidence. This  power  may  be  cultivated.  No  successful  evan- 
gelistic preacher  has  ever  failed  to  cultivate  it.  Power  to 
grip  a  congregation  and  to  wrestle  with  men  in  his  effort 
to  win  them  to  Christ  w-as  one  of  Mr.  Moody's  great  evan- 
gelistic gifts.     It  was  a  superb  illustration  of  moral  force. 

4.  Culture  of  a  strong  and  positive  faith  is  a  condition 
of  evangelistic  power.  The  specific  truths  to  which  faith 
especially  attaches  itself  will  necessarily  vary  in  different  pe- 
riods. The  phases  of  truth  with  which,  in  the  changing  con- 
ditions of  Christian  thought  and  experience,  the  evangelistic 
preacher  deals,  will  vary  accordingly.  In  the  Reformation  and 
post-Reformation  periods  the  central  truth  was  Justification 
by  Faith  only.  In  the  English  Wesleyan  revival,  it  was  Re- 
generation and  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit.  In  American  revi- 
vals of  the  mid  period  of  the  last  century  the  freedom  of  the 
will  and  personal  responsibility  in  the  work  of  conversion 
received  special  attention.  In  line  with  this  movement  in 
our  day  the  ethical  elemeiU  in  faith,  by  virtue  of  which  men 
surrender  themselves  to  Christ  as  the  master  of  life  and 
enter  into  fellowship  with  his  spirit  and  his  work,  is  made 
prominent.  To  receive  the  inspiration  of  Christ  and  to  fol- 
low his  example  are  the  prominent  features  of  the  Christian 
life  that  are  kept  before  us.     And  Christ  is  exalted  as  the 


THE   EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  241 

ideal  of  all  complete  human  character  as  well  as  the  power 
by  which  it  is  realized  in  men. 

But  the  background  of  all  successful  evangelistic  preaching 
has  at  all  times  been  a  recognition  in  some  form  of  the  two 
great  facts  of  sin  and  redemption.  They  have  been  con- 
ceived variously.  Different  aspects  of  these  realities  have 
been  accentuated  at  different  times.  But  the  facts  them- 
selves have  in  some  form  been  at  the  basis  of  this  type  of 
preaching  in  every  period  of  Christian  history. 

The  fact  of  sin  is  the  presupposition  of  the  fact  of  redemp- 
tion. Any  denial  of  sin  involves  a  denial  of  redemption.  If 
the  word  sin  has  lost  its  meaning,  there  is  no  meaning  left 
in  the  word  redemption.  The  reality  of  the  one  stands  or 
falls  with  the  reality  of  the  other.  Whether  it  be  the  guilt 
of  sin,  or  its  bondage,  or  its  delusion,  or  its  meanness,  or  its 
misery  that  is  made  prominent,  it  has  always  been  appre- 
hended as  sin,  as  an  abnormal  and  perverse  manifestation 
of  personal  freedom,  and  it  has  been  thus  proclaimed  with 
great  force  of  conviction  in  every  period  of  most  effective 
evangelistic  preaching.  It  is  not  necessary,  nor  is  it  possible, 
for  us  to  linger  with  it  and  dwell  upon  it  and  belabor  it,  as 
our  fathers  did.  One  need  not  speculate  much  about  its 
genesis,  nor  debate  much  about  its  nature.  But  one  must 
deal  frankly  and  fairly  with  the  fact  and  when  the  fact  is 
pushed  upon  men's  attention,  it  should  be  done  with  such  ef- 
fectiveness that  they  will  see  it  and  feel  it.  It  is  not  so  much 
a  question  of  quantity  in  the  presentation  as  of  force  of  con- 
viction and  force  of  statement.  The  quality  of  this  sort  of 
preaching  is  of  far  more  importance  than  its  quantity. 

Redemption  also  as  a  fact  accomplished  in  Christ  is  the 
very  heart  of  evangelistic  preaching.  It  is  a  redemption  ob- 
jectively complete  in  its  provisions  as  being  God's  work;  a 
redemption  sincerely  offered  to  all  men  and  for  the  applica- 
tion of  which  abundantly  helpful  provision  has  been  made. 


242  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

All  this  also  presupposes  faith  in  the  capacity  of  men  for  a 
religious  life  and  the  possibility  that  any  man  may  put  away 
his  sin  and  enter  that  life.  And  this  again  presupposes  strong 
confidence  in  the  ethical  and  religious  significance  of  that  act 
of  faith  by  which  men  enter  the  Christian  life,  as  involving 
emancipation  from  the  guilt  and  power  of  sin  and  as  con- 
taining in  germ  the  possibilities  of  all  Christian  virtue.  With 
respect  to  these  things  the  evangelistic  preacher  may  not 
waver,  the  fact  of  sin,  the  fact  of  redemption,  the  possibilities 
of  ..II  PiK-n  in  Christ,  and  the  sa\ing  significance  and  availing- 
ness  of  faith.  Men  may  differ  about  many  things  even  here 
within  this  circle  of  facts  and  truths.  But  if  they  hold  hard 
by  the  main  lines,  their  differences  need  not  compromise  their 
message.  Theological  and  philosophical  dit^culties  will  pre- 
sent themselves  to  all  men  who  think.  The  young  preacher 
of  our  day  is  quite  likely  to  fear  that  these  difficulties  may  un- 
fit him  for  this  type  of  preaching.  And  he  may  find  those 
who  will  endeavor  to  persuade  him  that  he  is  right  in  this 
fear  and  that  his  only  hope  is  in  accepting  their  view  of  the 
facts,  or  their  theories  about  them.  But  it  would  be  an  al- 
most devilish  device  that  should  succeed  in  persuading  a  sin- 
cere and  earnest  young  preacher,  who  holds  to  the  main 
lines  of  the  evangelical  faith,  that  unless  he  accept  some  one's 
theology  that  calls  itself  orthodox  he  will  fail  as  an  evange- 
listic preacher.  Men's  views  on  many  phases  of  an  evangeli- 
cal theology  have  changed  and  the  evangelistic  nerve  has 
not  been  cut,  and  it  may  not  be  cut  if  they  are  still  further 
changed.  No  earnest  man,  who  knows  that,  despite  the  dog- 
matic dictum  of  the  theological  partizan,  he  is  in  a  large  and 
generous  sense  an  evangelical  man,  holding  to  the  heart  of 
the  Gospel,  should  ever  allow  himself  to  be  moved  from  his 
evangelistic  purpose  by  any  theological  difficulties  or  by  rela- 
tively insignificant  variations  from  the  current  theology  of 
\u>  time.    The  preacher  who  knows  that  men  are  sinners,  that 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  243 

they  need  redemption,  that  they  have  it  freely  and  sincerely 
offered,  that  men  may  and  should  accept  it  whenever  clearly 
made  known  to  them,  and  that  whenever  accepted  in  an  act 
of  self  surrender,  they  enter  upon  the  beginning  of  a  re- 
deemed life  that  contains  the  promise  and  potency  of  all  forms 
of  holy  virtue — the  man  who  knows  this  or  who  strongly  be- 
lieves it,  whatever  his  opinions  with  reference  to  contested 
and  doubtful  secondary  points  of  belief,  is  the  man  who  has 
a  Gospel  and  he  can  preach  it  with  effectiveness,  if  otherwise 
he  have  the  fitness.  And  it  is  greatly  to  be  hoped  that  in  a 
time  of  unsettlement  no  young  preacher  will  be  put  to  confu- 
sion or  turned  aside  by  his  mental  perplexities.  It  is  not 
necessary  for  one  to  be  omniscient  in  order  to  be  evangeli- 
cal, or  in  order  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  grace  to  needy  men. 
But  it  is  necessary  to  believe  that  one  has  a  Gospel  to  preach 
and  that  men  need  it  here  and  now.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  Paul  thought  himself  omniscient.  He  was  not  wholly 
certain  about  eschatological  questions,  and  was  manifestly 
fallible  in  one  point  of  eschatology,  about  which  he  was 
quite  confident,  the  immediate  coming  of  our  Lord.  But  it 
is  generally  conceded  that  he  was  fairly  orthodox  and  that 
he  preached  his  Gospel  with  a  fair  measure  of  success. 

5.  Culture  of  the  religious  life.  Bad  men  have  some- 
times preached  effectively.  So  long  as  they  were  beheved 
to  be  good  men,  they  have  won  men  to  Christ.  One  may  for 
a  time  conceal  his  moral  unsoundness,  and  no  barrier  of 
doubt  in  the  minds  of  others  may  impede  the  transmission  of 
truth  through  him.  But  it  is  an  altogether  exceptional  thing 
that  a  man  of  immoral  and  even  of  unspiritual  character,  ever 
succeeds  in  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  He  has  neither  the 
capacity  to  apprehend  it  aright,  nor  the  motive  to  present 
it  unselfishly.  It  is  the  man  of  spiritual  power  that  preaches 
effectively.  The  spirit  of  God  works  through  the  consecrated 
energies  of  the  human  soul.     A    fresh  religious    experience 


244  THE    WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

is  sure  to  impart  new  moral  and  spiritual  power  in  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  Gospel.  The  case  of  Dr.  Chalmers  is  often 
cited  in  illustration  of  this.  But  this  is  only  one  amid  un- 
numbered instances. 

6.  Culture  of  the  evangelistic  spirit,  to  which  reference 
has  already  been  made,  a  spirit  namely  that  is  consonant  with 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  and  with  the  object  for  which  it  is 
presented.  This  is  more  than  a  spirit  of  earnest  devotion.  Many 
a  man  of  deep  and  earnest  piety  has  failed  with  respect  to  the 
right  evangelistic  spirit.  Wisdom  as  well  as  piety  is  in  de- 
mand. Contact  with  men  for  the  purpose  of  knowing  them 
and  of  finding  ways  to  reach  them  is  necessary  to  the  cul- 
ture of  the  evangelistic  spirit.  Men  are  known  individually. 
Every  heart  has  its  own  door.  Tact  in  handling  men  comes 
of  contact;  capacity  to  touch  men  skillfully  is  product  of 
touching  them  practically.  Preliminary  observation  of  and 
contact  and  acquaintance  with  successful  evangelistic  preach- 
ers will  be  of  value  to  any  man  who  sets  his  heart  upon  the 
winning  of  men.  It  is  a  misfortune  for  any  man  to  begin  his 
pastorate  without  such  preparatory  observation  and  acquain- 
tance. The  tone  of  one's  religious  services  may  be  made 
tributary  to  evangelistic  effort.  One  may  not  expect  to 
preach  evangelistically  with  success  whose  conduct  of  public 
worship  lacks  the  evangelistic  or  missionary  quality.  One's 
devotional  meetings  may  become  a  sphere  of  preliminary 
training.  Brief,  direct,  earnest  prayer  and  speech  further  the 
evangelistic  interest.  One  who  has  fallen  into  the  habit  of 
long,  dull,  monotonous  circuitous  prayer  and  address  will 
find  it  hard  to  work  out  of  them  when  he  comes  to  put  forth 
direct  effort  to  persuade  men. 

But  the  culture  of  the  evangelistic  spirit  involves  pre- 
eminently a  sense  of  one's  own  spiritual  needs.  This  condi- 
tions the  receptive  posture  of  the  soul  to  the  grace  of  (jod. 
All  men  of  evangelistic  power  have  known  what  I'aul  meant 


THE   EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  245 

when  he  said,  "When  I  am  weak  then  I  am  strong."  And 
this  includes  strong  conviction  of  the  needs  of  other  men. 
No  preacher  can  ever  afford  to  forget  that  he  deals  with 
those  who  are  needy,  whether  they  know  it  or  not,  needy  in 
sin  and  needy  in  infirmity.  It  is  a  strong  sense  of  this  need 
that  awakens  a  great  yearning  of  heart  to  be  helpful  in  bring- 
ing them  to  Christ. 

7.  Culture  of  such  homiletic  qualities  as  are  adapted  to 
this  type  of  preaching.  The  cultivation  of  sound  judgment, 
moral  intensity  and  power  of  concrete  representation  and 
correct  taste  with  reference  to  the  emotional  impressions 
,  sought,  is  an  important  consideration.  It  is  not  an  easy  task 
to  handle  a  sermon  that  aims  at  persuasion.  It  is  easier  to 
teach  than  to  persuade.  Persuasion  attaches  itself  to  that 
part  of  human  nature  that  is  most  intractable  and  unreliable, 
the  emotions  and  the  will.  It  also  deals  with  a  class  of  truths 
and  with  moral  aims  that  exact  closely  upon  the  conscience, 
and  it  has  to  concern  itself  with  those  who  may  be  indifferent 
or  hostile  to  the  claims  which  the  preacher  presents,  and  per- 
haps indifferent  or  hostile  to  the  preacher  himself.  The  tone 
and  quality  of  the  themes  themselves  also  with  which  the 
evangelistic  preacher  deals  are  very  exacting  upon  his  powers 
of  persuasion.  These  themes  are  the  great  realities  of  the  re- 
hgion  of  redemption.  Sometimes  they  speak  as  by  their  own 
power.  There  are  times  in  the  experience  of  men  when  very 
humble  and  ineffective  agencies  may  readily  transmit  these 
truths  and  disclose  their  power.  But  in  general  it  requires 
rare  skill  to  greaten  what  is  great  and  to  intensify  what  is 
intense,  and  this  is  what  the  evangelistic  preacher  must  do. 
He  must  greaten  and  intensify  the  claims  of  the  Gospel  in 
the  apprehension  and  in  the  feelings  and  convictions  of  men. 
These  difficulties  intensify  homiletic  exaction.  The  text  is 
important.  It  may  well  be  an  impressive  text  and  as  closely 
adapted  as  possible  to  the  nature  and  object  of  the  sermon. 


246  THE   \\'ORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

Harmony  of  tone  is  especially  desirable.  Whatever  the  char- 
acter of  the  text,  whether  command  or  claim,  promise,  cheer- 
ful incentive,  or  solemn  admonition  and  appeal,  the  right 
sort  of  sermon  will  catch  its  tone  as  well  as  thought  and 
make  it  effective. 

The  introduction  will  be  specially  solicitous  to  win  and 
fix  attention  and  interest  at  the  outset.  Whatever  will  make 
the  thought  or  sentiment  or  feeling  of  the  text  impressive  at 
the  start,  is  a  good  introduction  and  whatever  makes  the  oc- 
casion, or  the  theme  or  the  aim  of  the  sermon,  or  the  solici- 
tude of  the  preacher  for  his  hearers  impressive  will  be  good 
introductory  material.  The  theme,  whether  causal  or  final, 
i.  c,  whether  it  give  the  subject  or  instead  the  object  of  the 
sermon,  will  be  stated  with  exceptional  simplicity,  directness, 
definiteness,  clearness  and  brevity.  Such  statement  promotes 
forcefulness  and  impressivcness. 

The  outline  and  discussion  demand  cumulative  imjiression. 
H  one  aims  at  a  decisive  result,  he  naturally  aims  at  a  rhe- 
torical climax.  Anticlimax  is  fatal  to  decisive  efTects.  The 
conclusion  is  naturally  shorter,  more  compact  and  concen- 
trated in  form  than  that  of  the  didactic  sermon.  The  last 
word  will  be  especially  weighty  and  impressive,  and 
if  done  naturally  and  simjily  and  sincerely  may  well  be  de- 
tached by  a  slight  pause  and  given  with  deliberation  and 
emphasis. 

The  culture  of  the  rhetorical  qualities  of  naturalness  and 
directness  is  especially  important  in  evangelistic  preaching. 
For  even  naturalness  may  be  cultivated.  These  qualities 
have  characterized  the  style  of  the  great  evangelistic  preach- 
ers, especially  directness.  This  is  the  style  of  Mr.  Spurgcon 
and  of  Mr.  Moody,  and  earlier  of  Prof.  Finney.  The  style  of 
Whitefield  would  not  be  natural  in  our  own  day.  but  it  was 
natural  for  him,  was  familiar  to  his  hearers,  and  in  harmony 
with  the  rhetorical  culture  and  taste  of  his  age.     There  is 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  247 

nothing  in  the  discourses  of  these  great  evangelists  that  in- 
sures their  perpetuity.  But  they  express  what  is  real  to  them 
and  they  bear  the  evidence  of  reality  in  their  directness  and 
pungency.  A  religious  awakening  is  likely  to  bring  a  re- 
vival of  naturalness,  simplicity,  directness,  compactness  and 
cogency  of  speech.  The  very  form  partakes  of  the  new, 
fresh  life  that  penetrates  it. 

Culture  of  good  perspective,  of  balance  of  parts,  and  econ- 
omy of  force,  is  another  important  interest.  One  needs  to 
know  not  only  what  to  say,  but  how  much  and  when  and 
where,  and  how  to  stop.  The  adequate  evangelistic  sermon 
carries  no  surplus  material.  It  eliminates  padding.  It  wastes 
no  words.  It  is  dangerous  to  say  too  much.  He  who  speaks 
to  the  feelings  of  his  hearers  may  easily  cause  a  revulsion.  A 
little  over-doing  spoils  the  impression.  Just  here,  directness 
of  aim  becomes  the  more  manifestly  important.  The 
preacher  who  aims  straight  will  keep  within  bounds. 

IV.  Evangelistic  Motives 
The  most  important  study  in  evangelistic  preaching  is 
perhaps  the  study  of  motive,  or  a  study  of  the  various 
Tiiethods  by  which  the  will  is  moved.  Skill  in  the  use  of 
motive  is  skill  in  the  art  of  persuasion.  Motive  is  what 
moves.  What  moves  men  varies.  It  varies  not  only  with 
individual  men  and  classes  of  men  at  any  given  period,  but 
it  varies  with  the  changing  conditions  of  time.  Considera- 
tions that  move  men  in  one  age  fail  to  move  them  in  the 
new  conditions  and  habits  of  another  age.  The  field  of  mo- 
tive enlarges  as  men's  conceptions  of  the  Christian  life  en- 
large, as  their  conceptions  of  Christianity  enlarge,  and  as 
the  Gospel  takes  broader  and  more  varied  relations  with  the 
lives  of  men  in  the  changes  of  time.  The  age  in  which  we 
live  is  one  of  vast  complexity.  The  experiences  of  men  are 
conditioned  by  this  complexity.     There  is  a  greater  variety 


248  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

in  religious  experience  than  was  once  the  case.  There  is  larger 
range  in  the  types  of  religious  experience.  There  are  more 
ways  recognized  and  made  available  of  bringing  men  to 
Christ.  The  parable  of  the  hidden  treasure  and  that  of  the 
merchantman  suggest  and  were  designed  to  suggest  variety 
in  the  ways  by  which  men  enter  the  kingdom  of  God.  They 
thus  suggest  the  varieties  of  motive  to  which  men  are  sub- 
ject. Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  in  his  Yale  Lectures*  has  touched  upon 
this  subject  in  an  interesting  manner  and  has  directed  atten- 
tion to  some  of  the  evangelistic  motives  that  are  especially 
available  in  our  day.  I  shall  touch  a  portion  of  the  ground 
he  has  traversed,  but  only  a  portion.  Let  us  undertake  to 
classify  some  of  the  motives  that  are  available  in  the  evan- 
gelism of  our  day. 

I  I.  There  is  what  may  be  called  the  intellectual  motive. 
Some  men  are  much  more  easily  reached  than  others  by  the 
presentation  of  the  truth  convincingly  to  the  mind,  par- 
ticularly by  the  presentation  of  Christ  as  the  one  who  an- 
swers certain  intellectual  needs  and  meets  their  intellectual 
difficulties.  To  convince  the  mind  is  the  surest  way  to  reach 
the  hearts,  consciences  and  wills  of  some  men.  Convince- 
ment  is  the  larger  part  of  persuasion.  Most  men  know 
Christ  as  the  source  and  inspiration  of  life.  But  there  are 
those  for  whom  Christ  as  "the  truth"  has  supreme  attrac- 
tion. It  is  important  for  the  preacher  to  know  that  Qirist 
may  be  preached  evangelistically  as  "the  truth,"  the  truth 
of  God,  the  truth  of  man,  the  truth  of  life.  Christianity  is  the 
great  and  the  only  adequate  religious  interpreter  of  the 
being  and  character  of  God,  of  the  exaltation  and  worth  of 
humanity  and  of  the  inner  meaning  of  the  world  and  of  life. 
The  Christian  world-view  is  the  only  one  that  can  satisfy  not 
only  the  hearts  and  consciences  but  the  higher  intelligence 
of  thoughtful,  serious-minded  men.    It  answers  to  that  sense 


♦Nine  Lectures  on  Preaching,  page  204  ff. 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  249 

of  moral  value  which  is  not  only  an  ethical  instinct  but  an 
intellectual  conception.  The  Gospel  that  bears  the  name  of 
John  was  the  early  response  of  Christianity  to  the  intellec- 
tual needs  of  men  in  the  realm  of  religion.  Not  only  in 
substance  but  in  form  it  was  peculiarly  fitted  to  meet  the 
needs  of  all  those  who  in  that  early  age  sought  a  deeper 
knowledge  of  God  and  of  his  Christ.  In  many  of  its  funda- 
mental conceptions  it  is  adapted  to  the  mental  needs  of  men 
in  every  age,  and  is  far  more  significant  for  the  intellectual 
as  well  as  spiritual  necessities  of  the  church  than  many  of 
the  critics  know.  There  have  been  a  few  modern  evangelists, 
notably  the  late  Professor  Drummond,  who  have  presented 
Qirist  with  great  success  to  intellectual  and  cultivated  men. 
The  older  preachers-  always  sought  to  make  a  strong,  clear 
mental  impression  before  they  could  hope  to  make  the 
requisite  ethical  and  emotional  impression.  They  presented 
the  claims  of  Christianity  to  the  mind.  They  plied  the  in- 
tellectual motive.  And  just  here  apologetic  preaching  be- 
comes evangelistic  preaching,  or  enters  into  close  alliance 
with  it.  It  may  become  more  and  more  necessary  to  make 
evangelistic  preaching  apologetic  in  a  sort,  especially,  as  in 
the  preaching  of  Prof.  Drummond,  in  effort  to  win  educated 
young  men.  As  mental  life  in  the  realm  of  religion  develops 
and  as  men  come  under  the  power  of  modern  culture,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  appeal  to  the  higher  intelligence,  to  the 
higher  mental  wants  and  to  urge  those  motives  that  reach  the 
will  through  the  mind. 

2.  The  aesthetic  motive.  That  the  realm  of  religion  lies 
contiguous  to  the  realm  of  aesthetics  is  an  altogether  familiar 
fact.  No  modern  religious  teacher  has  more  clearly  con- 
ceived the  relation,  or  more  attractively  interpreted  it,  than 
Frederick  W.  Robertson.  That  the  realm  of  the  ethical  and 
of  the  aesthetic  also  are  closely  allied  has  been  made  apparent 
by    modern    philosophical   writers.      It    is    the    teaching   of 


250  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

Ulrici*  that  the  primal  sense  of  moral  obligation  is  both 
ethical  and  aesthetic.  There  lingers  in  the  soul  of  every  hu- 
man being  an  ideal  of  what  one  ought  to  be  and  the  con- 
scious or  unconscious  striving  for  self-realization  is  but  the 
striving  for  the  realization  of  this  ideal,  however  dimly  or 
however  clearly  defined  it  may  be.  This  notion  of  the 
"ought"  then,  which  involves  the  notion  of  a  striving  of  the 
soul  for  the  realization  of  a  moral  goal,  is  both  ethical  and 
aesthetic.  A  right  character  is  not  only  the  realization  of 
moral  rectitude  but  of  moral  beauty.  It  is  easy  to  see  that 
the  sense  of  an  ideal  goodness  is  both  ethical  and  aesthetic. 
There  are  those  who  have  a  strong  sense  of  the  attractions 
of  goodness.  They  carry  about  with  them  an  ideal  of  what 
God  intended  them  to  be.  This  ideal  of  manhood  lingers 
with  them  and  haunts  them.  Conscience  condemns  them 
for  failure  to  realize  the  standard  that  is  set  for  them.  Their 
lives  are,  therefore,  lives  of  self-dissatisfaction.  It  is  largely 
this  that  distinguishes  men  of  high  and  of  low  type  of  pos- 
sible manhood.  A  Christian  civilization  nurtures  this  sense 
of  ideal  goodness.  It  is  thus  that  men  of  the  finer  mould, 
who  are  subject  to  such  elevating  influences,  are  the  more 
easily  reached  by  the  presentation  of  Christ  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  loftiest  ideal  of  human  goodness.  It  is  the 
moral  beauty  of  the  character  and  life  of  Christ  that  will 
draw  such  men  to  him.  There  is  perhaps  a  broader  field  to- 
day for  the  use  of  such  a  motive  especially  among  educated 
young  men  and  women,  who  have  been  the  subjects  of  early 
Christian  nurture,  than  in  former  periods. 

3.  The  paraclctic  motive.  The  sorrows,  disappointments, 
hardships  and  dissatisfactions  of  life  prepare  many  for  the 
reception  of  Christ  as  the  one  who  brings  comfort,  strength 
and  peace.  There  are  in  our  day  increasingly  large  num- 
bers  of   those   who    carry    great   burdens    in    life,   who    are 


*Gott  und  dcr  Mcusch.    Zwcitcr  Thcil.    Einktung  III  Scitc  68  fT. 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  251 

wearied  and  dissatisfied  with  life  and  who  seriously  enter- 
tain the  question  whether  it  is  "worth  living."     Doubtless  the 
external  conditions  of  men  in  all  civilized  and  prosperous 
countries  is  constantly  bettering.     It  is  doubtless  true  that 
the  "rich  are  growing  richer,"  but  there  is  no  basis  for  the 
cry,  which  has  become  a  species  of  sentimental  cant,  that 
the  "poor  are  growing  poorer."     Doubtless  they  know  their 
poverty  and  feel  it  and  are  discontented  with  it  as  never  be- 
fore,  but  the  very   dissatisfaction  is  an   accompaniment   of 
bettered  conditions.     The  dissatisfactions  of  life  are  increas- 
ing.    While  the  outer  conditions   of  Hfe  are  bettering,  the 
inner  life  is  more  restless  and  burdened,  even  among  those 
whose  lives  are  otherwise  full  of  comfort.     It  is  said  to  be  a 
matter  of  observation  that  the  sufferings  and  hardships  of 
life  do  not  to  any  large  extent  bring  men  to  Christ,  that  they 
harden  rather  than  soften  them  and  make  them  responsive 
to  the  call  of  God's  grace  and  compassion.     The  attitude  of 
the  broken-down  section  of  society  towards  religion  seems  to 
confirm  this.     But  it  is  possible  that  the  comforting  Christ 
4s  not  brought  to  such  men  as  he  might  be  and  should  be, 
and  it  is  certainly  true  that  in  the  case  of  a  great  many  the 
sufferings  of  life  condition  a  certain  religious  susceptibility 
to  the  influences  of  a  higher  world,  and  it  were  a  very  serious 
mistake  for  a  shepherd  of  souls  to  assume  that  the  victim 
of  life's  hardships  can  not  to  any  considerable  extent  be  led 
into  a  longing  for  higher  forms  of  good,  for  peace  with  God 
iand  for  the  assurance  of  heavenly  blessedness. 

4.  The  emotional  motive.  There  are  those  who  may  be 
reached  by  an  appeal  to  fear.  It  has  proved  itself  to  be  a 
powerful  motive,  and  it  still  may  be  effective.  It  is  a  legiti- 
mate motive  and  was  freely  used  by  our  Lord  himself.  Men 
need  to  be  warned  of  the  results  of  sin,  not  to  their  characters 
^lone,  but  to  their  happiness.  Christ  appealed  to  a  love  of 
the  higher  well-being.     It  is  said  that  men  in  our  day  are 


252  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

not  responsive  to  this  motive.  Doubtless  they  are  not 
responsive  to  it  as  it  was  once  presented.  But  there  never 
was  a  time  when  the  consequences  of  sin  could  be  more 
powerfully  and  effectively  presented  than  now,  and  it  is  idle 
to  suppose  that  human  nature  has  so  radically  changed  and 
that  men  have  so  wholly  lost  all  sense  of  well-being  that  they 
cannot  be  made  to  dread  sin  and  its  consequences  when  they 
are  properly  presented  to  them.  The  preacher  need  not 
deal  with  visions  of  the  future  wrath  of  God  against  sin  in 
order  to  lead  men  to  dread  it.  He  has  only  to  deal  with  its 
present  consequences ;  he  has  only  to  deal  with  the  facts,  the 
awful  facts  of  life.  No  imaginative  picture  of  future  wrath 
can  equal  the  appalling  facts  of  present  ruin. 

Yet  in  itself  fear  is  not  a  moral  motive.  There  is  no  more 
virtue  in  dreading  suffering  of  soul  than  there  is  in  dreading 
suffering  of  body.  No  one  is  ever  morally  changed  by  the 
influence  of  fear  alone.  The  value  of  it  as  a  motive  is  that 
it  arrests  for  a  time  the  wrong  action  of  the  soul  and  gives  op- 
portunity for  other  motives  to  take  hold.  But  it  is  these 
other  motives,  operating  unconsciously  or  half-unconsciously 
it  may  be,  that  do  the  work.  A  man  can  never  be  simply 
frightened  away  from  sin  into  a  life  of  holy  virtue.  A  love 
for  the  soul's  true  good  itself  must  first  spring  up  in  the 
heart  because  it  is  recognized  as  such.  One  may  be  startled 
in  his  bad  way  so  as  to  be  made  afraid  of  God.  But  no 
one  is  ever  a  changed  man  morally  simply  by  being  made  afraid 
of  God.  One  may  be  terrified  at  the  consequences  of  sin, 
but  if  he  does  not  come  to  hate  it.  he  will  not  turn  from  it. 
Fear,  however,  may  give  faith  and  love  a  chance  to  become 
operative  in  the  soul.  Dread  of  results  in  suffering  may  at 
last  lead  one  to  hritc  the  sin  that  causes  the  suffering,  that 
is  hateful  in  itself,  and  hateful  to  God.  But  he  who 
still  tolerates  sin  in  his  heart  and  is  only  afraid  of  its 
consequences    will     still    adventure    in    his    bad   way,    and 


THE   EVANGELISTIC   TYPE  253 

will  dare  the  worst,  notwithstanding  his  dread.  Such  a  man 
is  not  a  changed  man,  nor  will  fear  alone  ever  change 
him. 

But  there  are  those  who  are  less  responsive  to  the  motive 
of  fear  than  to  motives  of  an  opposite  character.  They  may 
be  moved  by  an  appeal  to  the  heart.  There  are  those  who 
always,  even  from  early  years,  seem  to  live  under  a  sort 
of  constraint  from  the  love  of  Christ  or  are  at  special  periods 
peculiarly  responsive  to  it.  The  pathos  of  his  sorrow  and  of 
his  suffering  love  has  been  a  mighty  power  in  the  evangelism 
of  the  church.  Periods  of  religious  awakening  have  attested 
its  power  as  a  motive.  The  mystical  preachers  of  the  church 
of  Rome,  St.  Bernard,  Berthold,  Francis  of  Assisi,  attest  it. 
Witness  also  the  pietistic  preachers  of  the  Protestant 
churches.  Recall  the  Moravian  Zinsendorf,  whose  motto 
was,  "I  have  but  one  passion,  it  is  He  and  He  only."  The 
sufferings  of  the  Redeemer  have  been  a  prominent  theme  in 
Moravian  preaching  and  have  demonstrated  their  power  to 
nurture  the  feelings  and  affections.  We  may  not  forget  that 
the  great  Schliermacher  was  in  early  years  a  pupil  in  schools 
of  Moravian  piety,  where  the  suffering  love  of  Christ  was 
powerfully  delineated,  and  that  this  nurture  shaped  his 
future  life.  We  may  not  forget  that  Frederick  W.  Robertson 
and  John  Henry  Newman  were  educated  in  the  pietistic 
school  of  Anglican  Evangelicanism,  the  school  that  laid  great 
emphasis  in  its  theology  and  its  preaching  upon  the  suffering 
love  of  Christ.  The  marvelous  success  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  its  evangelistic  work  is  due  in  large  measure  to 
its  powerful  presentation  of  this  motive.  From  the  founding 
of  this  church  and  ever  on,  the  love  of  God,  as  disclosed  in 
the  cross  of  Christ,  has  been  the  favorite  theme  of  its  preach- 
ers. Few  preachers  in  any  age  have  equalled  Bishop  Simp- 
son in  power  of  pathos  in  dealing  with  the  love  of  the  cru- 
cified Redeemer,  and  with  the  glory  and  blessedness  of  the 


254  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

heavenly  life  as  the  crown  of  our  earthly  conflict  in  the  fel- 
lowship of  his  suflferings.  These  were  the  motives  he  liked 
most  to  urge.  \Mien  he  reached  them  in  his  discourses  he 
always  rose  to  the  supreme  height  of  a  well-balanced  elo- 
quence and  was  then  at  his  best.  Here  he  showed  himself 
to  be  at  home  and  was  able  to  sustain  himself  in  the  most 
exalted  flights  of  emotional  eloquence,  as  in  a  genuine  in- 
spiration. His  very  diction  became  more  simple  and  natural 
and  forceful,  and  even  more  exact.  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
especially  in  the  early  years  of  his  ministry,  had  amazing 
power  over  the  hearts  of  men.  His  first  and  mid-period 
preaching  had  an  evangelical  tone  which  that  of  the  later 
period  lacked.  The  motives  which  he  urged  and  which 
were  appropriated  as  the  product  of  his  own  religious  ex- 
periences were  those  that  appeal  to  the  heart,  and  they 
mightily  searched  the  hearts  to  which  they  appealed.  In 
his  later  life  he  aspired  to  be  the  teacher  rather  than  inspircr 
of  men  and  there  was  a  distinct  loss  in  that  power  which  was 
distinctively  his  own.  A  favorite  method  of  fostering  the 
religious  life  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church,  to  which  there 
is  something  corresponding  in  some  of  the  Protestant 
churches,  is  the  "retreat."  Its  prevailing  method  is  to  keep 
before  the  mind,  and  largely  through  pictures  for  the  imagi- 
nation, the  sufferings  of  Christ.  An  increase  in  such  meas- 
ures for  quickening  and  chastening  the  Christian  life  might 
be  profitable  in  all  the  churches  of  our  day.  How  has  it 
come  about  that  so  much  of  the  preaching  that  we  hear  fails 
to  move  the  heart?  Is  it  that  preachers  are  losing  their  hold 
of  the  religion  of  redemption,  losing  their  hold  of  the  heart 
of  religion,  losing  the  dynamic  of  suffering  love  in  the  incul- 
cation of  a  Christianity  which  is  summarized  as  a  law  of  life, 
whose  chief  significance  is  the  exaction  of  moral  tasks  rather 
than  as  a  revelation  of  the  grace  of  God?  Is  it  connected 
\vith  the  fact  that  the  evangelistic  type  of  preaching  is  not 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  255 

cultivated  as  once  it  was?  And  if  so,  why  is  this?  Is  it  that, 
in  the  siftings  and  eUminations  of  our  critical  processes,  the 
irreducible  remainder  of  our  Christianity  appears  as  only  a 
system  of  ethics?  The  culture  of  our  day  is  largely  intellec- 
tual, aesthetic  and  ethical.  The  rehgious  feelings  and  affec- 
tions are  not  adequately  cultured.  And  why  is  this?  Are 
we  perhaps  cultivating  ourselves  away  from  the  heart's  purest 
and  sublimest  inspirations? 

5.     The  moral  motive.       It  is  possible  to  work  directly 
upon  the   results   of   the   early   training   of   the   conscience, 
upon  a  trained  sense  of  obligation  to  Christ,  in  which  the 
conscience  has  been  precommitted.     And  it  is  here  that  the 
moral  allies  itself  with  the  aesthetic  motive,  or  a  sense  of 
moral  obligation  with  a  sense  of  the  attractiveness  of  the 
Christian  life.    The  value  of  early  religious  education  is  con- 
spicuous here.     It  creates  a  conscience  for  Christ.     It  pre- 
commits  the  moral  nature  and  secures  a  bias  towards  him. 
There  are  those  who  can  be  reached  by  appeal  to  a  certain 
sense  of  honor,  to  a  moral  sentiment  and  judgment  that  res- 
spects  a  character  and  life  that  are  worthy  of  a  man,  and  the 
possibilities  that  are  opened  up  in  Christ  before  them.    The 
very  fact  that  men  are  called  to  be  the  children  of  God,  that 
in  all  their  degradation  they  are  his  children,  the  very  height 
of  the  calling,  the  very  vastness  of  the  fact,  here  is  an  appeal 
to  manhood.    It  is  a  motive  that  should  appeal  to  any  manly 
young  man.    The  contrast  between  what  one  is  of  right  and 
privilege,  and  what  one  has  become  in  fact — what  one  was 
made  to  be  and  called  to  be  and  what  one  has  made  oneself 
— is  a  startling  contrast.    Aspiration  is  awakened  by  opening 
up   the   hopes   of   the   Gospel.     Christ   won   men   largely  by 
showing  them   that   in   him   a  better   manhood   is   possible. 
Assurance  of  the  good  stirs  the  consciousness  of  the  bad.    It 
was  the  returning  consciousness  of  sonship  and  the  hope  of 
welcome  as  a  son  at  the  old  home  that  won  the  prodigal,  and 


256  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

the  power  of  the  parable  is  in  its  illustration  of  this  possibility 
of  a  recovered  child  and  home  consciousness. 

6.  The  social  motive.  Personal  example,  various  forms 
of  personal  influence,  are  powerful  factors  in  winning  men 
to  Christ.  The  social  motive  is  strong  in  early  years.  It 
operates  powerfully  in  periods  of  religious  awakening.  In 
all  evangelistic  effort  in  the  interest  of  the  young  this  should 
never  be  forgotten.  That  one  shares  with  others  a  common 
good  makes  it  easier  to  appropriate  it  as  a  personal  good. 
The  dread  of  losing  the  power  of  a  sacred  social  influence,  of 
being  left  behind  and  alone  by  the  comrades  one  loves,  the 
conviction  that  the  accepted  time  and  the  day  of  salvation  is 
the  time  when  God  makes  it  easy  by  the  power  of  cooperat- 
ing sympathies  to  yield  allegiance  to  Christ.  All  this  is 
operative  in  the  evangelistic  interest.  And  there  are  al- 
ways those  in  any  community  where  the  fruits  of  Christian 
education  abound,  who,  more  sensitively  conscientious  than 
others,  reflect  regretfully  upon  their  own  past  influence,  and 
who  wish  to  make  amends  therefor.  The  possibility  that 
one  may  influence  others  to  enter  the  Christian  life,  and  that 
one  may  be  measurably  responsible  for  others'  failure,  is  a 
potent  motive  to  a  manly  youth.  Recall  the  case  of  Dr. 
Horace  Bushnell,  who  returned  to  his  own  allegiance  to  Christ 
under  the  pressure  of  a  burdening  sense  of  social  responsibil- 
ity as  a  teacher  of  college  men.  It  is  a  singularly  interesting 
illustration  of  the  power  of  the  social  conscience  in  a  man 
of  tremendous  personal  force  and  of  unique  individuality. 
In  a  time  when  the  social  aspects  of  Christian  morality  are  so 
strongly  accentuated  and  when  men  are  made  to  feel  their 
social  obligations,  it  is  a  motive  that  may  be  urged  with  great 
effectiveness.  The  attractions  of  a  common  service  in  the 
kingdom  of  God  was  a  motive  which  Prof.  Drummond 
urged  with  skill  and  power  in  his  evangelistic  effort  on  be- 
half of  educated  young  men.     This  was  the  distinctive  fea- 


THE   EVANGELISTIC  TYPE  257 

ture  in  the  evangelism  of  the  Rev.  B.  Fay  Mills.  It  was 
Surely  not  the  failure  of  his  evangelistic  method  that  brought 
about  his  retirement  from  the  evangelistic  field. 

The  motives  above  outlined,  of  course  blend  and  co- 
operate. Many  streams  of  influence  flow  into  the  current  of 
any  man's  Christian  life.  Combinations  of  motive  are  nec- 
essary to  move  men.  To  find  out  to  what  motives  men  are 
most  likely  to  respond  is  the  evangelistic  preacher's  task. 
He  must  study  men,  not  only  masses  of  men,  but  individual 
men.  He  needs  to  study  the  use  of  motive  by  successful 
evangelistic  preachers.  Pastoral  knowledge  is  tributary  to 
pastoral  evangelism,  and  here  the  professional  evangelist  is 
tt  a  certain  disadvantage. 


CHAPTER  V 

TYPES  OF  SERMON  DELIVERY 

The  best  method  of  sermon  delivery,  best  in  general  or 
best  for  any  particular  preacher,  can  not  be  determined 
off  hand.  No  one  method  is  universally  best.  One 
method  is  best  in  one  respect  and  for  one  man;  another 
best  in  another  respect  and  for  another  man.  Each  has 
its  advantages.  It  is  a  concrete  question,  not  to  be 
answered  by  an  appeal  to  general  principles.  It  is 
settled  at  last  by  experiment.  But  in  applying  the  test 
of  experiment  some  general  considerations  may  come  into 
discussion. 

The  personality  of  the  preacher  is  a  consideration  of  im- 
portance. A  preacher's  method,  and  his  success  in  it,  here 
as  elsewhere,  depend  on  the  peculiarities  of  his  endowment 
and  training.  There  are  certain  habits  of  mind  that  are 
better  adapted  to  one  than  to  another  method.  There  are 
also  questions  of  temperament  that  demand  recognition. 
Gifts  of  speech  or  lack  of  such  gifts,  are  to  be  considered. 
One's  physical  condition  in  general  or  at  any  particular  time 
is  not  an  insignificant  matter.  One's  personal  training  de- 
mands recognition.  A  preacher  may  easily  become  a  slave 
to  a  particular  method,  so  as  to  become  incapacitated  for 
any  other,  although  originally  as  well  fitted  for  one  as  for 
another.  Scottish  and  New  England  preachers  have  fur- 
nished many  examples  of  this  tyranny  of  habit.  There 
are  preachers  who  never  discover  their  possibilities  till  they  are 
pushed  to  the  test. 

The  subject  or  theme  of  the  sermon  demands  considera- 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  259 

tion.  Some  themes  are  more  easily,  more  appropriately  and 
more  successfully  presented  in  one  than  in  another 
method. 

The  object  of  the  sermon  challenges  attention.  The  ques- 
tion may  always  well  be  raised;  can  I  accomplish  my 
purpose  best  by  writing  out  fully  what  I  have  to  say  and 
reading  it,  or  by  carefully  thinking  my  subject  through 
and  trusting  to  the  occasion  for  its  rhetorical  form, 
or  by  writing  and  memorizing,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
or  can  I  best  realize  my  aim  by  combining  the  three 
methods? 

The  character  of  the  audience  may  determine  the  answer 
to  the  question.  The  exceptionally  intelligent  and  cultivated 
audience  perhaps  generally  prefers  and  is  best  edified  by  the 
sermon  that  is  written  and  read,  or  memorized.  This  is 
not  always  the  case.  But  in  some  sections  of  the  United 
States  it  is  true.  The  audience  of  only  average  intelligence, 
however,  generally  prefers  the  extemporaneous  method.  One 
would  hardly  take  a  manuscript  into  a  country  school  house, 
or  town  hall,  or  opera  house  or  camp  meeting.  The  character 
and  conditions  of  the  audience  would  forbid  it.  Bishop 
Brooks  was  a  manuscript  preacher,  but  before  a  promis- 
cuous audience  he  almost  never  appeared  with  his  manuscript. 
He  knew  that  he  could  speak  more  elTfectively  without  it. 
And  yet  this  is  largely  a  matter  of  habit  and  custom. 
Some  of  the  most  intelligent  and  cultivated  audiences  are 
adapting  themselves  to  extemporaneous  preaching.  The 
whole  question  is  relative.  There  is  no  absolutely  best 
method. 

But  let  us  take  up  the  three  methods  in  succession  and 
consider  their  claims  and  limitations.  The  subject  has  been 
very  fully  discussed,  there  is  a  great  amount  of  literature 
bearing  upon  it,  and  there  is  no  need  of  entering  upon  it 
at  lensfth. 


26o  THE    WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

I.     The  Manuscript  Type 

We  will  consider  its  conditions  of  value  and  its  limitations. 

I.  The  use  of  the  manuscript  seems  to  be  best  adapted 
to  the  mental  bias,  habit  and  training  of  some  preachers.  It 
is  also  best  adapted  to  their  literary  style  and  general  habit 
of  preaching.  The  late  Prof.  George  Shepard  of  Bangor 
Theological  Seminary  is  an  illustration.  His  mental  movement 
was  deliberate  and  strong.  Until  aroused  by  his  subject  and 
audience,  he  was  a  little  heavy.  He  was  exceptionally  grave, 
serious  and  impressive.  His  style  was  compact  and  forceful 
and  rose  to  a  high  elevation  of  emotional  vigor  at  the  end 
of  the  sermon.  It  was  concentrated  energy.  It  was  his  pur- 
pose to  handle  the  commonly-accepted  truths  of  evangelical 
Christianity  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  as  effective  as 
possible  upon  the  heart  and  conscience,  and  so  upon  the  will. 
He  trained  himself  carefully  along  this  line.  His  speech  was, 
in  extraordinary  measure,  concentrated,  direct,  forcible,  but 
deliberate,  weighty,  dignified.  He  never  threw  himself  out 
upon  the  broader,  freer  lines  of  movement,  never  gave  him- 
self wide  range,  but  aimed  straight  at  a  near  and  definite 
centre.  It  is  difficult  for  any  one  who  understood  the  charac- 
ter of  his  preaching  to  imagine  that  he  could  have  been  as 
effective  without  as  he  was  with  the  manuscript.  There  was 
an  interesting  correspondence  between  the  quality  of  his 
thought,  his  diction  and  his  elocution,  and  it  was  the  man- 
uscript that  largely  conditioned  that  correspondence. 

The  essay  type  of  mental  habit,  if  one  may  so  call  it,  is 
in  general  best  served  by  the  use  of  the  manuscript.  The  mind 
that  deals  naturally  and  habitually  WMth  the  minute  details 
of  thought,  that  does  not  grasp  it  in  its  broad  outlines,  nor 
hold  it  in  close  relatio^i,  but  moves  freely  from  one  thought 
to  another  along  the  line  of  relatively  remote  suggestion, 
always  takes  kindly  to  the  manuscript.  This  is  the  reason 
doubtless  why  Emerson  was  always  obliged  to  read  his  ad- 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  261 

dress  and  could  never  even  memorize  it.  Considering  his 
mental  habit,  his  habit  of  producing  and  writing,  it  is  just 
what  we  might  expect.  It  was  for  much  the  same  reason, 
perhaps,  that  Chalmers  was  a  manuscript  preacher.  His  ser- 
mons were  rhetorical  and  oratorical  essays,  close-wrought  and 
defective  with  respect  to  broad,  clear,  bold  outlines. 

One  can  readily  see  why  the  late  Prof.  Swing  of  Chicago 
and  why  Dr.  Parkhurst  of  New  York  must  use  the  manuscript. 
They  belong  to  the  class  of  pulpit  essayists.  Their  discourses 
are  essays  turned  measurably  into  the  form  of  addresses. 
The  manuscript  is  of  value  to  the  preacher  of  abstract  habits 
of  thought,  i.  e.,  whose  mind  deals  habitually  with  abstract 
truth.  It  is  of  value  to  the  preacher  whose  temperament  is 
phlegmatic,  whose  speech  is  slow  moving,  the  preacher  who, 
like  the  late  Canon  Mozley,  lacks  linguistic  facility.  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  of  Mozley  as  anything  but  a  manuscript 
preacher.  It  is  of  value  for  the  discourse  in  which  close  and 
discriminating  thought  is  demanded,  whose  object  is  the  elu- 
cidation of  a  difficult  subject,  and  the  edification  of  intel- 
ligent hearers  by  increase  of  knowledge.  In  all  cases  where 
exceptional  exactness  of  conception  and  of  statement  is  de- 
manded and  where  the  success  of  the  sermon  depends  on 
such  exactness  the  manuscript  is  desirable.  There  are  but 
very  few  extemporaneous  preachers  that  can  speak  with 
an  exactness  equal  to  that  of  the  manuscript  preacher.  I 
venture  the  suggestion  that  the  manuscript  promotes  variety 
in  preaching.  It  does  not  tend  to  a  uniform  and  stereotyped 
method  as  does  the  extemporaneous  habit.  Compare  Robert- 
son with  Bushnell  in  this  regard.  Robertson's  variety  is  in 
the  substance  of  his  thought.  His  method  is  stereotyped. 
Bushnell  has  variety  in  both  substance  and  form.  The 
manuscript  sermon  is  likely  to  anchor  itself  more  closely  to 
the  text  than  the  extemporaneous  sermon.  It  is  careful  study 
of  the  text  and  close  adherence  to  it  that  will  secure  a  de- 


262  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

velopment  that  is  pertinent  to  it  and  to  the  subject  deduced, 
and  thus  we  have  a  variety  corresponding  to  the  variety  of 
texts  and  subjects.  The  manuscript  sermon  is  generally  the 
more  carefully  prepared,  and  it  is  the  more  carefully  pre- 
pared discourse  that  is  likely  to  have  a  character  and  form 
of  its  own.  The  less  carefully  prepared  sermon  is  likely 
to  take  the  form  with  which  the  mind  of  the  preacher  has 
become  familiar  and  in  connection  with  which  it  works  most 
easily  and  readily,  because  of  this  familiarity  with  a  limited 
number  of  topics.  In  the  written  sermon  the  development 
runs  out  more  fully  into  the  details  of  thought.  Thought 
is  more  fully  expanded.  This  expansion  of  thought  con- 
ditions variety  of  thought.  The  farther  one  strikes  out  from 
the  main  stream  of  thought  into  the  back  country,  the  more 
rivulets  of  thought  he  taps.  The  farther  one  gets  into  a 
mine  the  more  wide-ranging  run  the  veins.  It  is  in  part  per- 
haps for  this  reason  that  the  manuscript  sermon  is  likely  to 
meet  a  larger  variety  of  needs.  It  is  perhaps  possible  for  the 
preacher  to  sustain  himself  longer  in  a  parish  with  a  manuscript 
if  properly  used,  than  without  it.  The  superior  literary  form 
of  the  manuscript  sermon  is  one  of  the  stock  arguments  for 
it.  He  is  a  rare  extemporaneous  preacher  who  can  express 
himself  in  as  good  literary  form  as  the  manuscript  preacher. 
The  value  of  this  superior  literary  form  will  of  course  de- 
pend on  the  use  that  is  made  of  it.  If  it  fosters  a  tendency 
to  make  the  sermon  an  end,  an  artistic  product  rather  than 
an  effective  rhetorical  instrument,  it  is  pernicious.  But  in 
any  event  the  written  sermon  has  an  advantage  in  the  clear- 
ness that  follows  deliberation  and  exactness  of  statement, 
in  the  forccfulness  that  follows  conciseness  of  state- 
ment, and  in  the  finish  that  belongs  to  the  more  carefully 
wrought  product.  A  larger  number  of  good  literary  qualities 
are  cultivated  by  the  use  of  the  manuscript.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  the  written  product  abides.    Extemporaneous  scr- 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  263 

mons  generally  are  short-lived.  It  is  to  a  large  extent  the 
literary  quality  of  sermons  that  gives  them  perpetuity.  In 
so  far  as  the  possession  of  the  manuscript  in  the  pulpit 
insures  deliberation  and  self-poise  and  self-assurance  and 
ease  of  mind,  it  becomes  tributary  to  an  edifying  public 
vi^orship.  The  man  who  takes  his  manuscript  into  the  pulpit 
will  leave  his  homiletic  burdens  behind.  He  who  carries 
his  sermon  in  his  mind  and  carries  anxiety  and  perplexity 
with  it,  cannot  be  wholly  at  his  ease  or  at  home  either  in 
preaching  or  in  the  conduct  of  worship.  These  are  all  familiar 
defenses  of  the  manuscript.  They  are  all  at  best  relative 
and  one-sided.  They  show  clearly  enough  how  much  may  be 
said  for  it.  But  it  is  possible  that  most  of  these  defenses  may 
be  counter-weighted  by  arguments  in  favor  of  other  methods, 
and  especially  by  its  own  limitations. 

2.  Limitations  of  the  manuscript.  Its  physical  limitations. 
It  is  a  tax  upon  physical  energy.  The  men  who  break  down 
in  the  ministry  are  largely  slaves  of  the  pen.  The  men  wlio 
do  their  work  at  night  are  generally  the  manuscript  preachers. 
Protracted  work  under  great  physical  disadvantages,  such  as 
are  involved  in  the  writing  and  reading  of  sermons,  will  sap 
a  man's  energies. 

Its  intellectual  limitations.  It  consumes  time  that  might 
be  given  to  broader  study  and  training.  The  manuscript 
slave  cannot  grow  as  he  otherwise  might.  He  is  likely  to 
become  a  mere  scrmonizer,  a  sermon  monger,  and  to  lose 
the  influence  that  a  broader  culture  might  secure.  He  is 
an  authority  upon  no  subject,  because  he  does  not  find  or  give 
himself  time  for  thorough  investigation  and  study.  This  is 
one  of  the  chief  reasons  why  men  of  intellectual  aspirations 
are  in  our  day  emancipating  themselves  from  such  servitude. 

Its  possible  moral  limitations.  The  preacher  who  always 
writes  and  reads  his  sermons  easily  overestimates  the  lit- 
erary or  artistic  form.    In  so  far  as  this  is  the  case,  the  proper 


264  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

ethical  aim  of  preaching  may  be  lost  sight  of.  Hence  defect 
in  the  moral  purpose  of  the  preacher.  Excessive  devotion  to 
form  limits  moral  aim  and  moral  power.  Thus  the  sermon 
fails  to  do  its  work.  In  times  of  religious  awakening  the  man- 
uscript is  likely  to  disappear,  in  part  and  for  a  time  at  least. 
Any  method  of  preaching  may  of  course  have  its  moral 
limitations.  But  the  moral  limitation  of  an  excessive  artistic 
ideal  is  peculiarly  the  product  of  manuscript  preaching. 

Its  oratorical  limitations.  The  reading  of  a  manuscript 
limits  a  man's  oratorical  powers.  The  limitation  of  posture, 
pantomime,  use  of  eye  and  of  vocal  organs  is  evident.  It  is 
pretty  sure  that  the  conversational  tone  and  method  which 
are  normal  for  the  public  speaker,  are  more  readily  cultivated 
by  the  extemporaneous  preacher.  One  talks  straight  at 
his  audience.  Hence  it  is  a  more  natural  method  of 
preaching.  It  is  pretty  sure  also  that  the  emotions  have  freer 
play. 

Its  professional  limitations.  Enslavement  to  the  manuscript 
limits  the  influence  of  the  pulpit  in  these  democratic  days. 
Pulpit  oratory  can  not  hold  its  own  with  other  forms  of 
oratory.  The  greatest  triumphs  of  oratory  have  been  in  the 
field  of  free  utterance.  The  pulpit  can  never  reach  its  best 
till  it  is  emancipated.  Everybody  likes  to  see  a  public  man 
stand  up  in  a  free,  manly  way,  and  say  out  what  is  in  him 
to  say  in  a  straight  manner.  The  manuscript  is  relatively 
modern.  It  is  on  the  whole  the  exceptional  thing.  In  the 
early  church  it  was  wholly  unknown.  Dr.  Dale  says  that 
the  arguments  are  overwhelmingly  against  it.  This  is  too 
strong  a  statement  perhaps.  For  there  is  a  place  for  the 
manuscript.  It  originated  in  an  honest  effort  to  better  the 
teaching  quality  of  the  pulpit.  It  accentuates  its  didactic 
function.  It  is  not  a  perversion.  It  has  been  perverted  and 
overdone.  It  has  been  made  tributary  to  agnosticism,  nat- 
uralism,   and    dogmatic    orthodoxy.     The    evangelistic    spirit 


TYPES    OF   SERMON    DELIVERY  265 

of  Methodism  has  dealt  it  some  heavy  blows,  and  its  power  is 
broken.  But  its  origin  is  not  anti-Christian,  and  it  has  had 
a  powerful  and  beneficial  reign.  Equal  results  could  not  have 
been  accomplished  without  it.  The  pulpit  of  the  last  three 
centuries,  indeed  of  the  last  six  centuries,  would  have  been  the 
weaker  without  it,  and  modern  theological  and  religious  liter- 
ature would  have  been  impoverished.  But  a  change  has  come. 
The  pulpit  returns  to  the  earlier  method  of  freedom.  It  gives 
full  scope  to  all  the  preacher's  powers.  The  energies  of  his 
personality  will  never  find  full  expression  in  the  pulpit  till 
he  is  emancipated  from  the  slavery  of  the  pen.  Personality 
as  the  organ  of  truth  and  of  the  spirit  of  truth,  is  at  its  best 
only  when  free.  The  preacher  needs  a  chance  to  throw  into 
his  speech  all  his  power  of  feeling  and  of  will,  evoked  and  in- 
spired by  the  audience  and  the  occasion  as  well  as  of  thought 
evoked  and  inspired  by  the  truth.  Fettered  to  the  manuscript 
he  is  often  like  a  chained  eagle,  flapping  his  wings  and  striv- 
ing to  soar,  but  held  in  restraint.  The  will,  especially,  can  not 
have  full,  free  play  upon  an  audience  with  the  manuscript. 
One  can  hardly  conceive  of  a  thoroughly  successful  evangelis- 
tic preacher  in  our  day  as  subject  to  its  restraint. 

But  the  manuscript  will  still  be  used  and  within  limits  should 
be  used.  How  then  may  it  be  used  to  best  advantage?  It  is 
clear  enough  that  a  manuscript  sermon  is  not  properly  written 
to  be  read,  to  be  read  as  an  essay  or  a  book  is  read.  It  is 
properly  written  for  delivery,  and  should  be  delivered.  A 
product  prepared  as  an  address  is  very  different  from  one 
prepared  as  an  essay,  or  a  treatise.  The  Scotch  have  been 
accustomed  to  call  the  manuscript  sermon  "the  book"  and 
appropriately,  for  Scottish  sermons  are  often  read  as  a  book 
is  read.  Chalmers  did  not  read,  although  he  held  to  the  manu- 
script, and  it  was  the  glow  of  his  rhetoric  and  the  fiery  en- 
thusiasm of  this  delivery  that  rescued  it  from  ineffectiveness. 
Bishop  Brooks  has  spoken  of  "extemporaneous  writing,"  and 


266  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

he  himself  was  an  example  of  cxtemporaneousness  in  the  best 
sense.  It  is  possible  to  write  with  nearly  as  much  freedom 
as  one  would  speak  extemporaneously,  and  without  the  defects 
of  the  extemporaneous  form.  This  should  be  the  aim  of  the 
manuscript  preacher.  It  is  possible  to  give  the  sermon  an 
easy,  natural,  colloquial,  flexible  movement.  One  who  pre- 
pares with  the  audience  in  mind  and  as  if  he  were  actually 
addressing  an  audience  will  realize  this  result.  One  who 
thus  writes  will  write  with  deliberation  but  with  fervor,  and 
in  subsequently  pruning  the  manuscript  he  will  not  cut  into 
the  quick.  Of  course  one  can  not  deliver  a  sermon  that  can 
not  be  easily  read,  that  is  not  written  in  clear,  bold  hand,  and 
properly  paragraphed,  nor  can  it  be  read  unless  the  preacher 
is  perfectly  familiar  with  it.  It  doubtless  requires  some  effort 
to  deliver  a  manuscript  sermon  naturally,  but  it  is  a  goal  that 
may  be  reached.  One  may  at  last  speak  almost  as  naturally, 
as  simply,  as  directly  and  as  freely  with  a  manuscript  or  with- 
out it.  If  the  sermon  is  written  with  rhetorical  freedom  and 
with  reference  to  delivery,  it  will  invite  the  conversational 
type  of  address  which  only  is  normal  for  the  public  speaker. 

II.  The  Extemporaneous  Type 
The  term  extemporaneous  has  considerable  range.  It  is 
sometimes  applied  to  the  address  that  is  premeditated 
both  as  to  thought  and  diction,  and  that  is  repro- 
duced as  prepared,  although  not  in  strictest  sense  mem- 
orized. There  are  public  speakers,  or  have  been,  who 
are  able  to  reproduce  their  products  in  about  the  same 
language  in  which  they  were  thought  out  and  without  con- 
scious effort.  The  speeches  of  Wendell  Phillips  seemed  to 
be  of  this  sort.  And  such  perhaps  were  the  speeches  of 
Edward  I'.vcrett.  Of  course  no  sermon  can  be  premeditated 
as  to  its  substance  without  relation  to  its  rhetorical  form.  For 
thought  takes  shape  in  words.     But  it  is  the  sermon  that  is 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  267 

not  reproduced  in  the  pulpit  in  the  exact  literary  form  in  which 
it  first  shaped  itself,  that  is  properly  called  extemporaneous — 
extemporaneous  at  least  in  the  commonly-accepted  sense. 
The  great  amount  that  has  been  written  upon  this  subject 
would  render  a  full  discussion  gratuitous  and  unprofitable.  I 
venture  only  a  few  suggestions  with  respect  to  the  conditions 
of  success  in  this  type  of  preaching. 

I.  Among  the  mental  conditions  must  be  named  a  habit 
of  clear,  discriminating  thought.  Necessary  in  all  preaching, 
it  is  preeminently  so  here.  The  extemporaneous  preacher 
has  three  problems  to  master,  three  that  are  of  special  impor- 
tance, the  problem  of  discriminating,  the  problem  of  relating 
and  the  problem  of  expressing  thought.  Any  man  who  has 
analytic  skill,  and  trains  himself  to  discriminate  clearly,  who 
has  the  ability  to  grasp  his  subject  in  its  main  and  subordinate 
features  and  to  relate  and  develop  them  in  an  orderly  manner, 
who  can  express  himself  readily,  clearly  and  forcibly,  may 
make  an  extemporaneous  preacher,  if  he  have  the  ordinary 
susceptibility  of  feeling  and  oratorical  impulse.  Upon  all 
these  conditions  the  exercise  of  memory,  of  imagination  and 
of  feeling  largely  depends.  But  of  all  these  requisites,  mental 
discrimination  is  of  chief  or  at  least  of  primal  importance.  A 
muddy  thinker  needs  the  homiletic  crutch. 

Consider  for  a  moment  again  the  value  of  mental  range.  It 
is  natural  that  the  extemporaneous  preacher  should  give  him- 
self pretty  free  scope  in  the  development  of  his  theme.  The 
written  product  generally  has  a  narrower  field,  because  it  deals 
with  the  finer  points  of  the  subject  and  develops  them  more 
fully.  Productiveness  and  range  are  the  salient  qualities  in 
Henry  Ward  Beecher's  preaching,  and  the  former  is  connected 
with  the  latter.  The  theme  opens  broadly,  the  main  topics 
contain  a  large  amount  of  matter  and  spring  naturally  and 
readily  from  the  subject  and  are  always  such  as  can  be  dis- 
cussed in  an  extemporaneous  manner.     If  one  finds  himself 


268  THE   WORK    OF   THE    PREACHER 

shut  up  within  narrow  bounds  and  is  forced  to  close  work  in 
the  development  of  material,  he  is  likely  to  find  that  he  lacks 
the   requisite   facility  and   freedom   of  mental  action,   which 
would  be  quickened  in  a  larger  field  of  thought.     One  can 
take  a  single  complete  thought  whose  elements  are  closely  re- 
lated and  write  about  it  more  easily  than  he  can  speak  about 
it  without  writing.     It  is  easy  to  reproduce  upon  one's  feet 
a  wide-ranging,  methodically-outlined  sermon  shaped  in  the 
form  of  a  rhetorical  address.     It  is  this  ease  of  reproduction 
that  conditions  success  in  the  extemporaneous  and  I  may  add 
the  memorative  sermon.     Just  here,  however,  is  one  of  the 
possible  defects  of  this  type  of  preaching.     There  is  a  tempta- 
tion to  generalize  too  widely,  to  cultivate  breadth  at  cost  of 
depth,  thoroughness,  and  definiteness.     One  may  easily  form 
the  habit  of  dealing  with  topics  that  are  too  big  and  general 
without  thinking  the  subject  through.     One  thus  becomes  thin 
in  proportion  to  his  range.     But  the  general  principle  is  valid. 
Free-ranging  and  orderly-related  and  developed  thought  is  a 
pre-requisite  of  extemporaneous  preaching.     One  can  see  why 
Robert  Hall  should  have  been  a  successful  extemporaneous 
preacher.     He  took  a  broad  survey  of  a  subject  and  discussed 
it  in  its  logical   relations.     Compare  him  with  John   Foster, 
the  "essay  preacher."    One  can  not  think  of  Edmund  Burke 
as  dependent  on  a  manuscript.     The  habit  of  extemporaneous 
speech  cultivates  tlie  mental  habit  above  specified,  and  with 
good  results,  provided  thoroughness  and  insight  are  associated 
with  breadth. 

A  judicious  selection  of  texts  and  themes  is  important  for 
the  extemporaneous  preacher.  Texts  and  themes  difTer,  as 
previously  suggested,  in  their  adaptation  to  extemporaneous 
preaching.  Of  course  men  differ,  and  what  may  be  difficult 
for  one  may  be  easy  for  another.  Familiarity  with  the  theme, 
whether  diflicult  or  not,  or  whether  adapted  to  the  extempora- 
neous method  or  not,  is  also  an  important  consideration.     But 


TYPES   OF   SERMON    DELIVERY  269 

some  texts  and  themes  are  in  their  nature  better  adapted  to 
all  classes  of  extemporaneous  preachers.  For  example,  texts 
that  are  readily  developed  after  the  textual  method  are  in 
general  better  adapted  to  extemporaneous  preaching  than 
those  texts  that  call  for  topical  development.  In  the  effort 
to  trahi  oneself  in  the  extemporaneous  method  one  may  well 
begin  with  the  textual  development.  The  theme  that  calls 
for  exhaustive  treatment  naturally  asks  for  the  manuscript. 
The  theme  that  justifies  the  suggestive  method  of  develop- 
ment, the  outline  of  which  calls  for  free  handling  rather  than 
exhaustive  expansion,  naturally  asks  for  the  extemporaneous 
form. 

No  extemporaneous  preacher  will  ever  succeed  without  such 
thorough  mastery  of  his  subject  as  gives  him  a  free  and 
familiar  handling  of  it.  Scarcity  of  material  will  never  do 
here.  The  preacher  needs  a  surplus.  "To  him  that  hath 
shall  be  given  and  he  shall  have  more  abundantly.  But  from 
him  that  hath  not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he 
seemeth  to  have."  Preaching  of  this  type  must  be  free. 
Constraint  is  homiletic  paralysis.  Only  the  master  can  be 
free.  It  is  a  great  joy  to  preach  when  one  knows  that  he  is 
ready  for  it.  Temptation  to  negligence  and  to  inadequate 
preparation  is  no  objection  to  the  method  but  to  a  failure  to 
meet  its  demands.  There  is  no  excuse  for  a  negligence  that 
results  in  a  superficial,  stereotyped,  slavish,  diffuse  method  of 
preaching  that  lacks  all  freshness  and  fullness.  The  tempta- 
tion to  neglect  should  put  one  upon  his  guard. 

The  cultivation  of  the  homiletic  mind  is  of  special  impor- 
tance to  the  extemporaneous  preacher.  The  manuscript 
preacher  is  not  so  dependent  on  the  habit  of  storing  material 
and  turning  it  into  the  homiletic  mill.  He  can  work  slowly; 
he  can  wait.  But  the  extemporaneous  preacher  must  rely 
upon  material  that  is  abundant  and  ready  at  hand.  One  of  the 
arguments  for  this  method  is  that  it  is  promotive  of  the  habit 


2/0  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

of  constant  preparation  under  all  conditions.  The  man  who 
turns  all  the  material  of  thought,  gathered  from  a  thousand 
sources  into  homiletic  pal^ulum  is  pretty  sure,  like  Henry  Ward 
Bcecher,  to  be  an  extemporaneous  preacher. 

2.     y\mong  the  rhetorical  conditions  of  success  is  a  con- 
crete habit  of  mind.     It  is  in  the  realm  of  the  concrete  that  the 
mind  moves  most  freely  without  a  manuscript.     It  furnishes 
images  for  the  imagination,  and  intensifies  the  action  of  the 
emotions.     The  abstract  thinker  needs  a  manuscript.     Frencn 
preachers  naturally  follow  the  free  method  for  the  reason  that 
they  are  natural  rhetoricians  and  orators,  who  are  familial^ 
with  concrete  realities  that  appeal  to  feeling  and  imagination. 
Connected  with  this  is  the  culture  of  the  oratorical  tempera- 
ment.    The  preacher  who  is  not  responsive  to  his  audience 
will  need  the  pulpit  crutch.     Rut  the  man  who,  while  he  is 
self-poised  and  deliberate  and  does  not  allow  his  emotions  to 
dominate  or  conquer  him,  is  sympathetic  with  his  hearers  and 
readily  responds  to  impressions  from  them,  is  the  one  who 
succeeds  here.    A  free  and  facile  use  of  language  is  a  neces- 
sary   element    in    the    equipment    of    the    extemporaneous 
preacher.     The  lack  of  linguistic   facility  drives  one  to  the 
manuscript.     Such  facility  is  dependent  on  many  things,  on 
the  character  of  one's  mental  movement,  and  on  tempera- 
ment. The  Frenchman's  mental  and  temperamental  habits  fit 
his  for  this  type  of  speech.  In  linguistic  gifts  he  is  in  general 
superior  to  the  German,  English  and  American  preacher.  But 
all  this  is  largely  a  matter  of  culture.     A  large  and  varied 
vocabulary  is  important.    The  vocabulary  of  the  pulpit  is  in 
general   too   limited.     That   of   the   average   extemporaneous 
preacher  is  probably  more  limited  than  that  of  the  manuscript 
preacher.     The  latter  is  likely  to  exercise  more  care  in  the 
choice  of  diction.     The  free  preacher  needs  especially  to  be 
a  diligent  student  of  language.     A  general  habit  of  accuracy 
of  speech  is  tributary  to  extemporaneous  power.       Writing 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  271 

cultivates  this.  The  best  free  speech  rests  upon  the  manu- 
script. Writing  has  laid  the  foundation.  Most  preachers 
who  have  succeeded  here  have  begun  with  the  manuscript. 
Mr.  Beecher  and  Dr.  R.  S.  Storrs  are  examples.  Good  habits 
of  speech  in  daily  intercourse,  even  with  the  illiterate,  will 
stand  by  one  in  the  pulpit.  The  lack  of  such  habits  will  dis- 
close itself  in  spite  of  oneself. 

3.  As  to  ethical  conditions,  which  are  among  the  must  sig- 
nificant, must  be  named  a  strong  and  earnest  purpose  to  real- 
ize as  fully  as  possible  the  legitimate  results  of  one's  ministry. 
Of  course  all  preachers,  whatever  their  method,  need  this  and 
are  supposed  to  have  it.  But  the  man  who  is  supremely  bent 
on  reaching  men  and  on  bringing  them  into  subjection  to  the 
truth,  and  especially  the  evangelistic  preacher,  will  be  su- 
premely solicitious  with  respect  to  the  question  of  method  in 
approaching  them.  I  incline  to  the  opinion  that  the  ex- 
temporaneous sermon  is  especially  dependent  on  the  preacher's 
moral  earnestness.  One  may  hold  an  audience  by  a  thought- 
ful, lucid,  elegant  essay-like  style  of  manuscript  preaching. 
But  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  an  extemporaneous  preacher, 
who  must  measurably  sacrifice  literary  excellence,  can  hold 
his  audience  and  do  the  work  he  should  do,  without  making  a 
strong  impression  of  moral  power.  It  is  he  who  should  have 
by  preeminence  the  mark  of  moral  force.  A  strong  moral 
purpose  will  quicken  and  ennoble  the  action  of  all  the  faculties. 
Concentrated  force  of  will,  power  of  feeling  and  affection  and 
the  vigor  of  a  strong  and  healthy  conscience  should  disclose 
themselves  preeminently  in  this  type  of  preaching,  and  if  the 
preaching  be  of  the  right  sort,  they  will  disclose  themselves. 
The  man  who  preaches  on  this  wise  gets  nearest  to  his  audience 
and  subjects  them  to  his  power.  He  can  be  tremendously 
wrought  upon  by  his  hearers.  He  commits  himself  to  his 
hearers  with  self-abandonment.  He  is  lifted  into  self-forget- 
fulness  and  into  moral  elevation  and  effectiveness  in  such  sort 


272  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

as  the  man  who  is  chained  down  to  a  manuscript  may  not  be. 
Connected  with  the  above  is  a  strong  purpose  to  succeed  in 
this  method  of  speech.  A  thorough  trial  of  it,  and  a  prompt 
beginning  are  to  be  recommended.  Many  begin  too  late,  fail 
to  put  it  to  the  full  proof  and  give  it  up  before  they  have 
demonstrated  that  they  can  not  succeed  in  it.  The  testimony 
of  those  who  are  committed  in  principle  to  the  method  and 
who  begin  early  is  worth  considering.  Preaching  without 
manuscript  half  the  time  from  the  very  first  will  probably 
realize  the  best  results.  One  will  have  better  matter,  better 
method,  better  style,  and  in  general  better  habits  of  careful- 
ness, thoroughness  and  faciHty  in  preaching  by  following  both 
methods  for  a  considerable  period  of  time. 

Training  in  self-possession  is  an  important  feature  in  ex- 
temporaneous preaching.  And  this  is  an  ethical  consideration. 
Moral  purpose  has  much  to  do  with  the  handling  of  oneself 
and  of  one's  subject  in  the  pulpit.*  He  who  forgets  himself 
in  the  subject  that  masters  him  and  in  the  object  at  which 
he  aims  will  win  freedom.  One's  general  habit  of  self- 
command,  which  is  a  moral  achievement,  will  stand  by  one 
and  save  one  from  the  embarrassments  that  bring  confusion. 
Physical  conditions  are  involved  here.  The  extemporaneous 
preacher  should  have  special  care  to  enter  the  pulpit,  in  just 
as  good  physical  condition  as  possible.  But  it  is  moral  purpose 
that  is  above  all  else  important.  A  sense  of  vocation,  re- 
sponsiveness to  the  power  of  the  truth,  love  and  devotion  to 
one's  fellow  men;  these  are  conditions  of  free  utterance. 

Special  spiritual  preparation,  always  important  in  entering 
the  pulpit,  is  especially  so  for  the  extemporaneous  preacher, 
for  it  is  a  condition  of  self-possession  and  of  freedom  and 
cogency  of  speech.  He  who  is  lifted  into  a  great  height  of 
spiritual  inspiration  is  a  free  man.  The  extemporaneous 
preacher  needs  the  tranquillity  of  the  upper  realm.     He  is 


*Sce  Dr.  Alexander's  Thoughts  on  Preaching,  page   165. 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  273 

subject  to  many  disturbing  influences.  He  needs  the  uplift  of 
spiritual  power  to  place  him  above  them.  It  is  conceivable 
that  one  may  enter  the  pulpit  in  such  condition  of  spiritual 
freedom  and  power  that  no  earthly  influence  can  disturb  him. 

III.     The  Memoriter  Type 

There  is  more  to  be  said  in  favor  of  memoriter  preach- 
ing than  might  at  first  be  supposed.  It  is  the  least 
common  of  all  methods,  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  preju- 
dice against  it,  especially  among  American  preachers,  who 
rarely  make  use  of  it.  But  it  may  be  advocated  as  a  de- 
sirable method  in  the  occasional  or  exceptional  sermon, 
where  freedom  of  delivery  may  be  combined  with  carefulness, 
thoroughness  and  accuracy  of  thought  and  diction,  and  in  the 
use  of  old  written  sermons,  which  may  be  freshened  by  the 
free  introduction  of  new  material  along  the  old  line  of  thought. 

In  defense  of  this  method  it  should  first  of  all  be  recalled 
that  it  has  proved  successful  in  the  hands  of  some  of  the  best 
preachers  of  the  church.  Witness  the  preachers  of  the  Ger- 
man, French  and  to  a  limited  extent  of  the  Scottish  church. 
Tholuck,  Christlieb,  Lacordaire,  Massilion,  Vinet,  Monod, 
Coquerel,  Guthrie.  Whether  they  would  have  been  as  effective 
in  any  other  method  may  be  doubted,  certainly  not  in  the  use 
of  the  manuscript.  It  is  not  an  impracticable  method.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  acquire  facility  in  the  use  of  memory.  Secular 
orators,  like  Charles  Sumner,  as  well  as  preachers,  have  not 
only  begun  their  public  careers  but  continued  and  ended  them 
by  carefully  writing  and  memorizing  their  speeches. 

It  combines  thoroughness  with  freedom,  precision  with  im- 
pressiveness,  finish  with  force.  And  this  is  the  common  argu- 
ment for  it.  The  material  of  the  sermon  is  well  digested  and 
the  literary  form  good.  At  the  same  time  the  preacher  can 
adjust  himself  to  the  occasion  by  interjecting  fresh  material 
without  disturbing  the  course  of  thought,  as  Dr.  Guthrie  fre- 


274  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

quently  did.     The  more  thorough  the  previous  preparation  has 
been,  the  more  readily  suggestive  of  fresh  material  it  will  be. 
It  is  this  thoroughness  of  preparation,  which  lies  back  of  free- 
dom in  delivery,  that  naturally  commends  it  to  German  and 
Scotch  preachers.     It  is  its  freedom  and  finish  upon  a  ground- 
work of  well-digested  material  that  naturally  commends  it  to 
French  preachers.     The  time  and  labor  of  committal  are  the 
chief  objections.     But  the  memory  may  be  trained  to  do  its 
w^ork  with  wonderful   facility  and  rapidity.     What  takes   at 
first  parts  of  three  or  four  days,  is  at  last  easily  accomplished 
in  an  hour  on  Sunday  morning  as  in  the  case  of  Prof.  Christ- 
lieb  and  of  Dr.  Guthrie.  The  objection  made  by  Dr.  Robinson 
that  the  task  cultivates  the  memory  disportionately,  injuring 
the  powers  of  imagination,  of  feeling,  judgment  and  of  pro- 
ductive thought,  by  concentrating  too  much  energy  upon  the 
work  of  remembering,  is  hardly  supported  by  experience.     If 
one  writes  with  reference  to  delivery  without  the  manuscript 
and  with  the  audience  in  mind,  writes  as  he  would  speak  in  his 
best  manner,  with  a  free  hand,  and  with  clear  outline,  he  will 
easily  memorize  it  and  without  any  disproportionate  exercise 
of  memory.  Memory  may  be  so  cultivated  as  to  act  with  unem- 
barrassed freedom.   The  mere  act  of  remembering  in  course 
of    time    becomes    wholly    insignificant,    so    insignificant   that 
one  is  hardly  conscious  of  it  as  an  effort.  And  this  may  answer 
the  objection  that  the  memoriter  sermon  always  betrays  itself 
and  can  not  have  the  same  effect  upon  an  audience  that  an 
extemporaneous  sermon  has.     The  objection  assumes  that  one 
will  never  be  able  to  free  oneself  from  the  appearance  of  effort 
in  memorizing,  and  that  it  will  always  seem  like  a  recitation. 
If  this  were  true,  it  would  doubtless  be  a  fatal  objection.     But 
this   is   not  a  necessary   result.       The  alleged   fact  that  the 
memoriter  sermon  is  soon  forgotten  is  adduced  as  evidence 
that  the  mind  is  injured  by  the  process  of  memorizing.     It  is 
assumed  that  it  must  be  an  unnatural  and  so  injurious  process, 


TYPES   OF   SERMON   DELIVERY  275 

else  it  would  not  be  so  easily  forgotten.  But  this  proves  too 
much.  That  one  easily  forgets  is  no  proof  that  the  process 
which  secured  the  transient  result  to  the  memory  was  unnat- 
ural and  injurious.  But  the  truth  of  the  assertion  that  the 
memoriter  sermon  is  easily  forgotten,  more  easily  by  implica- 
tion than  other  types  of  sermon,  may  be  challenged.  It  is  at 
any  rate  true  that  it  is  very  easily  recalled. 

One  of  the  defects  of  the  manuscript  sermon,  in  the  hands 
of  a  preacher  especially  who  lacks  rhetorical  and  oratorical 
impulse,  is  its  temptation  to  run  into  an  over-didactic  dis- 
cussion and  into  an  essay  method.  It  is  written  to  be  read, 
not  delivered.  It  is  thus  likely  to  lack  the  rhetorical  and 
oratorical  quality  that  belongs  to  an  address.  But  the  sermon 
that  is  written  to  be  delivered  without  the  manuscript,  will  as 
of  necessity  have  the  character  of  an  address.  Note  the  re- 
sult in  the  preaching  of  Dr.  Guthrie.  One  can  hardly  cite 
him  as  an  example  of  supreme  success  in  memoriter  preaching. 
But  in  this  respect  he  was  successful ;  he  wrote  with  reference 
to  freedom  of  address  and  with  reference  to  committing  to 
memory  and  this  secured  for  his  product  the  requisite  oratori- 
cal quality. 

The  chief  defect  of  the  extemporaneous  sermon  is,  as  al- 
ready suggested,  that  it  is  likely  to  run  into  generalities,  to 
lack  closeness  and  definiteness  of  thought,  variety  of  form, 
compactness,  brevity  and  precision  of  statement.  It  is  at 
least  clear,  whatever  else  may  be  said  about  it,  that  the 
memoriter  method  will  correct  these  defects. 


IV 

SECTION  FOURTH 

METHODS  OF  HOMILETIC  ART 


METHODS    OF   HOMILETIC   ART 

We  are  here  introduced  to  what  is  technically  designated 
as  Formal  Homiletics,  and  we  shall  find  ourselves  chiefly  inter- 
ested in  the  organic  or  structural  rather  than  in  the  rhetorical 
form  of  the  sermon.  It  is  thus  that  the  artistic  aspects  of 
preaching  become  prominent.  Assuming,  as  we  have  done, 
that  the  text  belongs  more  ])roperly  to  material  than  to  formal 
homiletics,  let  us  follow  the  usual  analysis  of  the  organism  of 
the  Sermon. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  INTRODUCTION 
I.  The  Object  of  the  Introduction 
I.  It  is  to  fix  attention  on  what  is  coming.  "If  the  in- 
troduction be  not  pertinent,"  says  a  Welsh  preacher,  "the 
preacher  does  not  know  where  he  is  going,  and  if  the 
inferences  be  not  pertinent,  it  is  evident  that  he  does 
not  know  where  he  has  been."  The  same  is  true  as  re- 
gards the  hearer.  The  introduction  shows  the  hearer 
where  the  preacher  is  going.  When  he  arrives  at  his 
landing  place,  which  becomes  a  new  point  of  departure, 
the  hearer  sees  how  he  landed  there.  The  introduction 
wins  and  fixes  attention  on  this  part  of  the  journey.  It  is 
to  render  one's  hearers  at  the  outset  "attentos"  to  use  the 
classical  term,  in  order  that  afterward  they  may  the  more 
readily  become  "dociles"  as  regards  the  subject  and  perhaps 
"benevolos"  as  regards  the  preacher.  The  text  is  but  a  gen- 
eral starting-point.  It  suggests  the  subject  only  in  a  general 
and  perhaps  wholly  obscure  manner.  A  transition  is  needed 
from  this  general  starting-point  to  a  definite,  specific  theme, 
and  thence  onward.  By  advancing  from  this  undiscriminated! 
complex  text-thought  to  the  discriminated,  specific  theme- 
thought,  the  preacher  shows  his  hearer  the  method  of  ap- 
proach. It  is  a  process  similar  to  that  which  he  followed  in  his 
own  work  of  preparation.  He  thus  takes  the  hearer  along 
with  him.  Or  if  he  gets  his  theme  independently  of  the  text, 
the  introduction  helps  him  put  text  and  theme  in  manifest 
relation.  This  process  holds  attention.  If  an  equivalent  re- 
sult could  be  secured  at  the  start  by  dumping  the  theme  upon 


28o  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

the  audience,  the  preacher  might  begin  at  once.  Sometimes 
this  may  well  be  done.  Abruptness  is  sometimes  of  great 
rhetorical  value.  Surprise  is  an  element  of  interest.  But 
this  is  exceptional.  In  general,  attention  is  not  satisfactorily 
secured  by  asking  for  it  at  the  start,  or  by  assuming  that  one 
has  it  as  of  course.  It  must  be  won.  And  it  is  well  to  secure 
the  best  kind  of  attention  and  to  secure  it  at  best  advantage. 
It  is  thus  that  the  introduction  adapts  itself  to  the  condition 
of  the  hearer.  It  has,  therefore,  a  psychological  significance 
and  value.  It  approaches  its  object  in  such  way  as  will 
most  effectively  secure  for  it  the  requisite  mental  and  emo- 
tional point  of  contact  with  the  hearer. 

2.  In  fixing  attention,  the  introduction  also  stimulates  in- 
quiry. Instead  of  thrusting  the  subject  upon  the  hearer  sud- 
denly and  without  any  cooperation  of  his  own,  the  preacher 
takes  him  into  a  sort  of  mental  and  moral  copartnership,  leads 
him  on  step  by  step  in  such  way  as  to  secure  the  exercise  of 
his  faculties  and  to  anticipate  for  himself  measurably  perhaps 
the  subject  ahead.  A  mental  process  is  thus  quickened.  We 
take  in  objects  of  thought  in  their  relations.  One  thing  leads 
up  to  another.  Each  thought  becomes  the  more  significant 
and  impressive  by  reason  of  its  relation  to  other  thoughts. 
We  grasp  the  whole  by  following  the  details.  "Invention" 
would  be  impossible,  if  we  took  in  everything  at  once  and  in 
a  lump.  Every  body  is  more  or  less  inquisitive  at  the  start. 
The  introduction  avails  itself  of  that  fact.  It  says;  Look  out 
for  what  comes  next.  Here  is  the  zest  of  it.  Skillful  rhet- 
oricians know  how  to  stimulate  this  mental  search.  Dr. 
Guthrie  was  accustomed  to  work  up  his  introductions  artisti- 
cally. He  began  abruptly  and  with  something  that  is  striking. 
He  quotes  some  proverb,  presents  to  the  imagination  some 
material  phenomenon  that  has  life  and  movement,  a  crawling 
worm  or  a  ship  entering  the  harbor  under  full  sail.  He  touches 
some  human  experience  that  interests  us  all,  like  the  process 


THE  INTRODUCTION  281 

of  growing  old.  He  tells  a  story.  He  approaches  with  a 
short,  sharp,  abrupt  question.  "Hast  thou  faith"?  He  thus 
rivets  attention  and  in  doing  so  stimulates  the  imagination 
and  puts  the  hearer  upon  the  search  for  his  objective  point. 
He  starts  at  a  distance  from  his  subject,  as  Chrysostom  used 
to  do,  and  as  the  classical  orators  did  and  as  the  classical 
rhetoricians  advised  in  their  discussion  of  the  Exordium.  The 
audience  becomes  thus  increasingly  interested  and  alert  as  the 
preacher  approaches  his  subject,  and  when  they  have  it,  he 
has  them. 

3.  In  fixing  attention  and  stimulating  inquiry,  the  introduc- 
tion also  secures  a  specific  interest  for  and  in  the  subject. 
Attention  and  inquiry  are  essential  to  interest.  What  the 
preacher  wants  is  a  definite  mental  and  emotional  interest  in 
what  he  is  at.  He  wants  the  hearer  to  start  with  him  and 
share  something  of  his  own  interest.  He  himself  wins  this 
interest  partly  by  getting  at  the  subject  in  a  gradual  way.  He 
has  not  plunged  into  it  at  once.  Opening  up  the  subject  as  it 
opened  itself  to  the  preacher,  the  hearer  will  the  more  readily 
share  his  interest  and  capturing  him  at  the  start  the  preacher 
will  be  the  more  likely  to  hold  him  to  the  end,  and  thus  the 
purpose  of  the  sermon  is  the  more  likely  to  be  realized,  namely 
the  reception  of  the  truth.  Apart  from  this  purpose  the  intro- 
duction and  the  sermon  itself  as  a  whole  can  have  no  su- 
preme significance.  The  ultimate  purpose  of  the  introduction 
is  precisely  that  of  the  sermon  itself.  In  effect  the  preacher 
says :  I  want  to  discuss  an  important  truth,  and  to  win  your 
attention,  quicken  your  activities,  secure  your  interest  and 
thus  realize  my  object.  I  open  some  preliminary  phase  of  the 
subject  to  you  as  clearly  and  as  attractively  as  I  can ;  I  want 
you  to  see  the  beginning  of  our  ^G^rney ;  I  want  you  to  follow 
me  step  by  step,  so  that  you  may  discover  the  path  along 
which  we  move,  and  by  which  we  arrive  at  our  objective  point. 
I  want  you  to  test  the  legitimacy  of  my  process,  so  that  you 


282  THE   WORK    OF   THE   PREACHER 

may  apprehend  it  the  better  and  perhaps  value  it  the  more. 
Therefore  I  come  to  you  introducing  my  subject  step  by  step, 
leading  the  way  to  it  and  for  it  into  your  minds  and  I  hope 
your  consciences  and  hearts.  The  ways  of  doing  this  are 
various,  but  the  end  is  the  same,  it  is  to  put  the  hearer  most 
advantageously  in  possession  of  the  truth. 

Thus  as  having  reference  to  the  final  moral  purpose  of  the 
sermon  the  introduction  has  ethical  significance.  The  object 
being  to  reach  and  influence  men,  the  introduction  will  enable 
the  sermon  to  do  this  the  more  effectively.  With  this  ethical 
significance  is  associated  an  artistic  significance.  By  con- 
tributing to  the  unity  and  symmetry  of  the  sermon  it  satisfies 
the  desire  for  completeness.  This,  of  course,  is  a  subordinate, 
but  it  is  not  a  wholly  insignificant,  consideration.  The  sermon 
is  an  organism.  The  introduction  is  a  part  of  it  and  is  neces- 
sary to  its  symmetrical  development.  Or  to  change  the  figure, 
it  is  a  piece  of  rhetorical  architecture.  The  introduction  is 
as  necessary  to  its  symmetry  as  the  beginning  of  any  artistic 
product.  This  does  not  mean  that  as  a  work  of  art  it  has  no 
end  beyond  itself.  No  work  of  art  is  properly  an  end 
to  itself.  The  end  may  not  alA^ays  be  consciously  present 
in  the  mind  of  the  artist,  but  it  will  have  some  end,  and, 
therefore,  some  ethical  significance.  The  good  in  art  as 
elsewhere  is  always  the  "good  for  something."  One  of  the 
elements  of  perfection  in  any  art  product  is  its  adaptation 
in  all  its  parts  to  some  api)ropriate  end.  It  is  preeminently  so 
in  any  product  of  rhetoric  art.  The  sermon  is  a  rhetorical 
instrument.  The  perfection  of  the  instrument  is  the  complete- 
ness of  its  adaptation  to  its  end.  The  artistic  significance  of 
the  introduction,  therefore,  is  ultimately  in  its  contribution 
to  the  work  of  the  sermon,  and  the  artistic  becomes  allied  with 
the  ethical  interest. 

Primarily  then,  the  introduction  is  for  the  sake  of  the  sermon 
and  of  the  hearer,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  preacher.     It  intro- 


THE  INTRODUCTION  283 

duces  the  subject,  not  the  man.  The  chief  interest  is  here. 
Even  in  modern  secular  oratory  the  speaker  must  look  out 
for  the  handling  of  his  subject  rather  than  for  the  handling 
of  his  audience  by  the  tricks  of  oratory.  In  this  pulpit  oratory 
has  led  the  way.  Allegiance  to  the  truth,  not  personal  as- 
cendency over  men,  is  the  object.  Early  Christian  preaching 
laid  supreme  stress  upon  this.  It  knew  nothing  of  rhetoric 
and  oratory.  It  distrusted  and  discredited  them.  The  dis- 
course was  artless.  It  was  part  of  the  service  of  a  worship- 
ping congregation.  Neither  the  speaker  nor  the  discourse 
needed  introduction,  for  the  worship  had  prepared  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  the  congregation  for  the  discourse,  which  was 
the  exposition  and  application  of  a  given  passage  of  Scripture. 
But  advancing  culture  brought  rhetoric  and  oratory  into  the 
pulpit.  Hence  the  exordium.  As  the  sermon  displaced  the 
homily,  the  exordium  became  a  rhetorical  necessity.  When- 
ever the  pulpit  has  returned  to  the  homily,  as  in  the  period 
of  the  Reformation,  it  has  dropped  the  introduction.  Luther 
used  the  homily,  and  he  speaks  slightingly  of  the  introduction, 
declaring  that  he  does  not  know  how  to  preach  artistically. 
Nature  taught  him  his  art.  But  in  displacing  the  homily,  the 
sermon  has  not  displaced  exposition.  The  exposition  of  the 
text  in  the  introduction  takes  the  place  of  the  homily,  in  so  far 
as  it  was  explanatory.  Hence  the  sermon  some  times  has  both 
introduction  and  exposition.  The  introduction  is  a  general 
approach  to  the  subject.  The  exposition  is  a  specific  and 
explanatory  approach  to  it  by  clearing  up  the  meaning  of  the 
text  and  showing  how  the  theme  comes  from  it.  Some  homi- 
letic  writers  still  distinguish  between  introduction  and  exposi- 
tion. But  it  is  needless.  Exposition  is  one  of  the  best  sorts 
of  introduction.  What  explains  the  text  best  introduces  the 
subject.  It  also  prepares  the  hearer  for  it  and  leads  him  into 
it.  Whatever  the  method  of  the  introduction,  its  chief  object 
is  to  put  the  hearer  most  successfully  in  possession  of  the  sub- 


284  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

ject.  To  announce  the  subject  abruptly,  either  before  or  after 
giving  the  text,  does  not  generally  succeed  in  doing  this  most 
advantageously.  Something  to  aid  the  hearer  in  appropriat- 
ing the  subject  intelligently  and  in  apprehending  its  significance 
adequately,  is  generally  desirable.  Exposition  may  not  always 
be  necessary,  for  the  text  may  be  clear  and  simple.  But  some 
method  of  approach  is  of  value  for  the  apprehension  of  the 
subject.  Even  those  who  announce  the  subject  at  the  outset, 
do  not  get  on  without  the  introduction,  for  they  turn  back 
and  start  over  again.  A  prompt  announcement  of  the  subject 
is  well  enough,  but  having  done  this,  one  would  better 
push  on.  Why  should  one  in  effect  say  to  the  congregation ; 
Brethren,  I  have  been  a  little  precipitate  in  getting  this  thing 
before  you.  I  take  it  all  back ;  let  us  turn  about  and  begin 
anew  ? 

But  preparing  the  subject  for  the  hearer  involves  preparing 
the  hearer  for  the  subject.  Skill  in  opening  the  way  to  the 
subject  may  prove  to  be  an  efYectual  way  of  winning  the  hearer 
to  that  good  will,  attention  and  docile  interest  in  the  subject 
that  is  the  chief  aim  of  the  sermon  itself.  In  a  word ;  do  jus- 
tice to  the  subject  and  you  will  be  the  more  likely  to  do  justice 
to  the  audience. 

H.  Methods  of  Introduction  or  Points  of  Dep.\rture 
Specific  methods  arc  innumerable.  For  convenience  let 
us  group  them  about  certain  centers,  which  furnish 
points  of  departure  for  the  work.  Five  of  them  may  be 
named. 

I.  The  preacher  may  be  the  center,  or  point  of  departure. 
What  relates  to  the  man,  eliciting  or  concentrating  interest  in 
his  personality  or  his  cxiiericnces.  may  be  a  valuable  method 
of  approach.  Secular  orators  avail  themselves  of  this  device 
and  show  skill  in  it.  Pulpit  oratory  need  not  be  ashamed 
<Df  it.     Preachers  like  Chrysostom,  trained  in  the  schools  of 


THE  INTRODUCTION  285 

classical  rhetoric,  and  noted  for  rhetorical  power,  have  ex- 
celled in  this.  But  modern  preachers  also  have  known  the 
personal  introduction.  An  interesting  sermon  by  Saurin 
illustrates  this.*  The  text  is  from  John  14:  15,  16, 
"Christ's  Valedictory  Address  to  his  Disciples."  The 
preacher  relates  the  circumstances  under  which  he  had  selected 
his  text,  half  apologizing  for  making  the  pulpit  the  vehicle 
of  such  confidential  communications.  It  was  the  exhibition  of 
extraordinary  Christian  patience  on  the  part  of  a  brother 
minister  during  a  painful  sickness.  This  sick  brother  had 
found  comfort  in  those  words  of  Christ.  'T  was  struck  with 
this  discourse,"  says  the  preacher,  he  means  in  connection 
with  the  above-mentioned  experience  ;  'T  immediately  thought 
of  you,  my  dear  brethren,  and  I  said  to  myself,  my  hearers  had 
need  be  furnished  with  this  powerful  consolation,  etc.  Today 
I  execute  my  design.  Condescend  to  concur  with  me  in  it. 
Come  and  meditate  on  the  last  expressions  which  fell  from  the 
lips  of  the  dying  Saviour."  The  introduction  centers  wholly 
in  this  personal  experience.  Evangelistic  preachers  are  accus- 
tomed to  avail  themselves  of  the  personal  introduction.  Their 
success  as  evangelists  gives  weight  to  it.  Mr.  Spurgeon  knew 
well  how  to  avail  himself  of  his  hearers'  interest  in  him,  in  his 
experiences  and  his  accomplishments.  In  a  sermon  from  John 
3  :  16,  he  begins  by  referring  to  the  fact  that  he  had  been  look- 
ing over  the  texts  he  had  used  and  that  he  had  failed  to  find 
this  one  among  them.  Then  he  refers  to  the  character  of  his 
preaching  and  what  he  wishes  it  to  be  and  calls  them  to  witness 
that  it  has  all  been  in  line  with  this  text.  He  refers  to  what 
an  aged  minister  had  said  to  him  about  preaching.  It  corre- 
sponded with  what  he  himself  had  just  said  to  them.  This  is 
the  entire  introduction.  It  might  seem  egotistical.  Some 
preachers  certainly  would  not  tolerate  it.  But  it  may  be  effec- 
tive.    Most  people  are  interested  in  this  sort  of  thing.     They 


*Vol.  VI,  Sermon  II. 


286  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

like  to  hear  about  such  matters  as  centre  in  their  preacher. 
They  are  interested  in  persons,  even  if  they  are  somewhat 
conceited  or  self-conscious  persons,  as  Mr.  Spurgeon  seemed 
to  be.  But  the  more  simple  and  natural  and  genuitie  a  man  is, 
the  more  effective  the  personal  introduction  will  be.  Mr. 
Moody  was  such  a  man,  and  with  great  effectiveness  he  often 
introduced  his  sermons,  in  a  very  straight  forw'ard  and  every 
way  proper  manner,  with  a  reference  to  some  observation  or 
experience  that  served  his  purpose.  In  ordinary  pastoral 
preacliing  the  personal  introduction  will  be  relatively  infre- 
quent. One  notices  but  few  of  such  introductions  in  volumes 
of  ordinary  pastoral  discourses. 

2.  The  occasion  may  furnish  a  basis  for  the  introduction. 
The  occasional  introduction  befits  the  occasional  sermon.  It 
gives  an  appropriate  festal  tone  to  an  Easter  or  Christmas 
sermon  to  bring  the  introduction  into  coimection  with  the 
joyous  nature  of  the  occasion.  Special  missionary  sermons 
frequently  open  with  a  reference  to  the  occasion.  Bishop 
Brooks  recognized  the  note  of  timeliness  in  it  and  sometimes 
accentuated  the  significance  of  his  missionary  sermons  by  the 
use  of  the  occasional  introduction.  Bishop  Simpson  recog- 
nized the  principle  of  adaptation  in  it.  Bishop  Huntington's 
sermon,  dedicatory  of  Appleton  Chapel  at  Harvard,  entitled 
"The  House  of  Prayer,"  opens  with  a  history  of  the  building. 
The  occasional  introduction  may  heighten  the  importance  of 
the  occasion,  of  the  sermon,  of  the  truth,  perhaps  in  the  right 
way  of  the  preacher  himself,  in  the  estimate  of  the  congrega- 
tion. The  more  exceptional  and  important  the  occasion,  the 
more  natural  and  impressive  such  an  approach  will  be.  Public 
funeral  discourses  may  win  special  impressivcncss  by  intro- 
ductory reference  to  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion.  It  would 
be  almost  a  mark  of  singularity  in  a  sermon  on  some  great 
public  calamity  that  it  should  fail  to  open  in  this  way.  The 
writer  recalls  the  notes  of  sympathy  and  of  awe  that  rang 


THE  INTRODUCTION  287 

through  the  opening  utterances  of  discourses  preached  on  the 
Sunday  following  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln. 

Chrysostom  was  accustomed  to  catch  the  note  of  the  occa- 
sion in  his  introductory  words.  In  one  of  his  "Homilies  on 
the  Statues"  preached  in  Antioch,  on  the  occasion  of  the  de- 
vastation of  the  city  by  order  of  the  Emperor  Theodosius  I,  he 
opens  with  a  reference  to  the  circumstances  of  the  assembly. 
In  another  he  refers  to  the  presence  in  the  assembly  of  the 
heathen  prefect  of  the  city.  Again  he  opens  with  a  vivid  de- 
scription of  the  desolations  of  the  city.  Extemporaneous 
preachers  are  able  to  do  this  with  facility.  Ordinary  sermons 
even  may  sometimes  avail  themselves  of  this  type  of  introduc- 
tion. Mr.  Beecher  would  sometimes  smuggle  into  his  opening 
words  some  reference  to  what  had  been  suggested  to  him  as 
he  entered  the  church,  or  by  incidents  connected  with  the  con- 
gregation. The  value  of  this  type  of  introduction  is  of  course, 
conditioned  by  the  way  in  which  it  is  done,  by  its  naturalness, 
its  good  taste,  and  perhaps  relative  infrequency.  But  its 
pertinency  and  timeliness  are  evident  at  once. 

3.  The  approach  to  the  theme  may  be  through  the  worship. 
German  preachers  affect  the  liturgical  introduction.  The 
Scripture  lessons  or  the  hymn  before  the  sermon  frequently 
furnish  the  point  of  attachment.  This  is  the  more  frequent 
with  the  extemporaneous  than  with  the  manuscript  preacher. 
Those  who,  in  their  preaching,  follow  the  order  of  the  Chris- 
tian year,  are  much  more  likely  to  use  the  scripture  lessons  as 
a  point  of  departure.  Canon  Liddon  illustrates  this  in  his 
Easter  sermons.  Trench  in  his  advent  discourse  in  the  volume 
entitled  "Westminster  Sermons,"  Brooks  in  his  discourse  on 
"All  Saints  Day"  and  on  "Trinity  Sunday."  It  has  been  the 
custom  of  German  preachers  to  make  the  so-called  homiletic 
prayer  a  part  of  the  introduction  to  the  sermon,  sometimes 
preceding  and  sometimes  following  the  text.  When  it  follows 
the  text  it  the  more  manifestly  becomes  a  part  of  the  intro- 


288  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

duction.  Its  object  doubtless  is  to  direct  attention  to  the 
close  connection  between  the  sermon  and  the  worship,  and  to 
accentuate  the  liturgical  aspect  of  preaching.  In  this  it  ad- 
mirably succeeds.  It  enhances  the  impressiveness  of  the  ser- 
mon and  holds  it  to  its  appropriate  place  in  worship.  It  is  not 
altogether  in  harmony  with  the  habits  or  tastes  of  American 
preachers,  or  with  the  general  character  of  their  worship,  or 
of  their  preaching  or  perhaps  of  their  theory  of  worship  and 
of  preaching.  And  so  much  the  worse,  one  may  be  permitted 
to  say,  for  the  worship  and  for  the  preaching  and  for  the 
theory.  We  see  here  how  didactic  or  rhetorical  considera- 
tions have  dominated  liturgical  considerations  in  the  con- 
duct of  public  worship.  No  one  can  hear  or  read  the 
homiletic  prayers  of  German  preachers,  like  those  for 
example  of  Schleiermacher,  which  one  regrets  to  see  are 
passing  into  desuetude,  without  being  strongly  impressed  by 
them. 

4.  The  topical  is  a  frequent  form  of  introduction.  It  at- 
taches itself  to  the  general  thought  of  the  theme  and  antici- 
pates some  phase  of  it.  The  text  may  suggest  the  theme  only 
in  the  remotest  and  vaguest  manner  possible,  and  it  becomes 
the  work  of  the  topical  introduction  to  bring  the  theme  into 
manifest  relation  with  the  text.  With  the  larger  number  of 
topical  preachers  this  is  perhaps  the  point  of  departure.  They 
start  with  the  general  thought  of  the  theme.  Most  introduc- 
tions are  suggested  by  the  theme  or  the  text.  They  are  fruit- 
ful sources.  Bishop  Brooks  generally  starts  thus,  picking  up 
the  text  before  he  finishes  the  introduction,  and  adjusting  it 
to  the  theme.  Bushnell  generally  starts  with  the  text  rather 
than  with  the  theme.  A  study  of  topics  will  be  of  value  in 
connection  with  the  study  of  the  thematic  or  topical  introduc- 
tion. A  very  common  method  of  starting  the  topical  intro- 
duction is  along  the  line  of  generalization  or  its  reverse, 
particularization.  The  great  master  of  this  method  in  our  day 


THE  INTRODUCTION  289 

was  Phillips  Brooks.  Into  this  process  he  frequently  and  with 
good  effect  introduced  the  principle  of  contrast.  In  the  ser- 
mon with  the  text  "Unspotted  from  the  World,"  the  introduc- 
tion begins  with  a  series  of  reflections  upon  the  changes  men 
undergo  as  they  advance  in  life.  The  moral  change  in  which 
they  become  spotted  by  the  world  is  one  of  them.  Here  we 
have  a  contrast  between  the  unspotted  character  of  Jesus, 
suggested  by  the  text,  and  the  spotted  characters  of  men. 
With  this  as  a  basis  we  are  introduced  to  the  general  subject 
of  "Spotted  Lives."  In  Bishop  Huntington's  sermon  on  Re- 
vivals, entitled  "Permanent  Realities  of  Religion  and  Times 
of  Special  Religious  Interest,"  the  introduction  opens  with 
reflections  upon  the  influence  of  names  in  discrediting  or  in 
dignifying  objects.  The  term  Revival  is  an  illustration  of  this 
power  of  words.  And  this  is  the  whole  introduction.  It  be- 
gins with  what  is  general  and  passes  to  what  is  specific.  It  is 
the  theme,  not  the  text,  that  suggests  it.  Analogy,  which  is 
always  involved  in  generalization,  furnishes  a  good  basis  for 
the  topical  introduction.  Saurin  in  his  introduction  to  a  ser- 
mon from  2  Pet.  3 :  8,  "One  Day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thou- 
sand years,  etc.,"  on  the  "Eternity  of  God"*  finds  the  Hebrew 
shekinah  a  symbol  or  analogue  of  that  aspect  of  the  Deity 
suggested  by  the  theme.  The  shekinah  was  luminous  on  one 
side  and  opaque  on  the  other,  so  is  it  with  the  eternity  of  God. 
It  is  dark  in  itself  but  bright  in  its  practical  value  for  our  lives. 
He  was  accustomed  to  cite  analogous  historical  instances  from 
the  Old  Testament  to  illustrate  the  thought  or  principle  which 
he  deduced  from  a  New  Testament  text,  thus  making  the  Old 
Testament  support  the  New.  Stories  that  contain  an  analogy 
are  valuable  for  introductory  work,  because  they  are  interest- 
ing concrete  illustrations  of  principles.  What  better  introduc- 
tion were  possible  for  a  sermon  from  the  text  "What  shall  it 
profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  world,  etc.,"  whose  theme  will 
♦Vol,  I,  Sermon  II. 


290  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

naturally  be  the  priceless  worth  of  the  human  soul,  than  the 
Old  Faust  Legend? 

There  is  vast  range  for  general  reflection  in  the  intro- 
duction that  starts  with  the  theme.  A  habit  of  generalizing  or 
of  particularizing  or  of  tracing  analogies,  that  is,  of  applying 
a  general  truth  to  specific  cases  or  general  principles  to  con- 
crete specific  instances,  or  of  transferring  what  is  true  in  one 
realm  of  experience  to  what  may  be  assumed  to  be  true  in 
another  and  analogous  realm,  is  a  good  one  for  the  preacher. 
This  habit  will  appear  in  one's  introductory  work.  Welsh 
preachers  are  fruitful  in  general  reflective  material.  So  were 
the  English  Puritan  preachers.  How  often  we  find  William 
Jay  saying  at  the  close  of  his  introductions,  "These  reflections, 
my  brethren,  are  intended  to  illustrate"  thus  and  so ! 

5.  The  most  common  point  of  departure  perhaps  is  the 
text,  and  perhaps  the  most  valuable.  The  textual  introduction 
has  a  wide  range  of  possibilities.  They  are  all  of  an  explan- 
atory character,  dealing  with  the  context,  with  the  meaning 
of  terms,  with  the  writer,  the  circumstances,  the  time,  and 
place  of  his  utterance  and  matters  of  such  sort.  It  is  a  valu- 
able kind  of  introduction  in  the  treatment  especially  of  difficult 
texts  and  in  the  higher  grade  of  didactic  discourses.  It  clears 
away  obscurities,  clears  up  difficulties  and  prepares  the  way 
for  intelligent  apprehension  of  the  significance  of  the  theme. 
It  belongs  to  an  educative  pulpit,  the  pulpit  of  men  like  Robert- 
son, Bushnell,  Liddon,  South.  It  is  the  explanatory  process 
that  makes  clear  the  method  of  securing  the  theme.  It  takes 
the  audience  along  with  the  preacher,  as  if  he  were  saying 
"I  want  to  show  my  hand.  I  want  to  justify  my  homiletic 
ways  to  you,  so  that  there  be  no  misunderstanding  between  us, 
and  no  prejudgment  that  I  have  made  a  mistake."  It  is  a 
method  that  not  only  introduces  the  theme  successfully  and 
so  prepares  the  hearer  for  it,  but  it  may  furnish  a  favorable 
introduction  for  the  preacher  himself  by  indicating  respect 


THE  INTRODUCTION  291 

for  the  intelligence  of  his  hearers  and  a  purpose  to  be  instruc- 
tive and  helpful,  and  perhaps  by  showing  skill  in  deducing 
pertinent  and  striking  themes.  The  explanatory  introduction 
has  wide  range.  Note  some  of  its  possibilities.  Word- 
explanation  is  common.  Here  the  meaning  of  the  central 
or  stress-word  of  the  text  is  illustrated  by  comparing  or  con- 
trasting its  use  in  other  relations  and  connections.  Bishop 
Huntington  has  a  sermon  from  I  Cor.  i :  26,  "Ye  see  your  call- 
ing, brethren."*  The  introduction  explains  the  different  uses 
of  the  word  "Calling,"  or  the  different  spheres  in  which  it 
is  applied,  advancing  thus  to  its  use  in  the  text.  Narrative  ex- 
planation generally  introduces  the  historical  or  biographical 
sermon  and  prepares  the  way  for  the  lessons  or  reflections  that 
are  deducible  from  the  material  as  thus  presented.  The  im- 
plicatory  explanation  will  direct  attention  to  what  may  be  sug- 
gested or  intimated  or  implied  but  not  explicitly  stated  in  the 
text.  Such  texts  for  example  as  Acts  4:  12,  "Neither  is  there 
Salvation  in  any  others,  etc." 

Circumstantial  explanation  will  have  reference  to  anything 
that  heightens  the  significance  of  the  text,  as  for  example  the 
character  or  condition  of  the  one  who  speaks  in  the  text  or  is 
spoken  of,  the  time,  place,  occasion,  object. 

The  comparison  or  contrast  of  cognate  passages  may  throw 
introductory  light  upon  the  import  of  the  text,  as  for  example 
Matt.  18:  15,  "If  thy  brother  sin  against  thee,  etc.,  compared 
with  Matt.  5  :  23,  24,  "If  thy  brother  hath  ought  against  thee," 
etc.     So  also  the  passages  relating  to  the  power  of  the  keys. 

A  collocation  of  different  passages  illustrating  various  phases 
of  the  main  thought  of  the  text  may  throw  light  upon  its 
meaning  in  a  preliminary  way :  passages  for  example  suggest- 
ing different  sorts  of  fear  may  aid  in  understanding  the  mean- 
ing of  the  text;  "The  Fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  beginning  of 
Wisdom."     The  introduction  to  Robertson's  sermon  on  "The 

♦Christian  Believing  and  Living,  Sermon  I. 


292  THE   WORK   OF   THE  PREACHER 

Loneliness  of  Christ"  dealing  with  different  kinds  of  loneliness 
prepares  the  preacher  to  understand  the  better  the  loneliness 
of  Christ.  A  reference  to  anything  that  is  striking  or  peculiar 
in  the  text  such  as  we  find  in  Canon  IMozley's  introductions, 
starts  the  hearer  with  a  new  impression  of  it. 

A  reference  to  the  impression  the  text  has  made  upon  some 
well-known  person,  as  for  example  Paul's  words:  "So  then 
every  one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself,  etc.,"  on  Daniel 
Webster,  will  very  likely  never  be  forgotten. 

The  use  of  analogy  illustrates  the  significance  of  the  text. 
Take  the  introduction  to  Dr.  Guthrie's  sermon  on  "Early 
Piety"  from  2  Tim.  3:15,  "From  a  child  we."  A  man  is  likely 
to  be  what  his  childhood  indicates.  We  see  the  soldier,  the 
statesman,  the  poet  in  the  boy.  Nature  has  her  prophetic 
intimations.  So  has  religion.  The  theme  is  thus  a  generalized 
thought  based  on  analogy,  and  the  analogy  is  suggested  by  the 
text,  not  the  theme. 

Contrast  often  furnishes  a  striking  explanatory  introduction, 
as  in  Dr.  Guthrie's  sermon,  "The  Good  Fight  of  Faith,"  from 
2  Tim.  4:7.  Contrast  the  spirit  of  Benhadad's  boastful  mes- 
sage to  Ahab  about  his  military  prowess  and  Ahab's  reply, 
"Let  not  him  that  girdeth  on  his  armor  boast  himself  as  he 
that  putteth  it  off,"  with  Paul's  exultation  in  the  words  of  the 
text.  Paul  was  obnoxious  to  no  such  reproach  as  was  Ben- 
hadad. 

The  text  like  the  theme  may  be  generalized  or  particularized, 
and  its  import  thus  be  the  more  clearly  seen,  as  in  Phillips 
Brooks'  sermon  on  "The  Purpose  and  Use  of  Comfort,"  from 
2  Cor.  1 :  3,  4.  There  are  different  ways  of  desiring  comfort. 
The  quality  of  the  desire  will  determine  the  w^orth  of  the  com- 
fort desired.  The  sort  of  comfort  Paul  desired  is  suggested. 
Then  comes  an  appeal  to  the  hearer,  when  God  comforted  you, 
did  you  desire  to  use  it  for  others,  as  Paul  did?  H  so,  you 
have  the  comfort  Paul  had. 


THE  INTRODUCTION  293 

III.  Qualities  of  Introduction 
I.  The  thought-qualities  of  the  introduction  are  such  as 
relate  to  its  proper  subject  matter.  They  are  qualities  of 
thought  that  are  appropriate  to  it  as  containing  only  intro- 
ductory material.  Pertinency  is  one  of  these.  The  thought 
of  the  introduction  is  germane  to  that  of  the  theme,  or  it  is  not 
introductory.  It  may  be  so  remotely,  but  somehow  it  must 
bear  upon  the  theme.  Its  starting-point  may  be  distant,  and 
its  course  circuitous,  but  at  last  it  must  reach  and  rest  in  the 
theme.  Extemporaneous  preachers,  like  Chrysostom,  may 
allow  themselves  great  range  in  the  introduction,  but  they  are 
sure  to  keep  in  view  the  objective  point.  That  is  not  a  proper 
introduction  that  is  as  pertinent  to  one  theme  as  to  another. 
The  explanatory  introduction  is  naturally  most  direct  in  its 
pertinence.  It  runs  straight  out  from  text  to  theme.  It  sets 
in  line  the  whole  movement  of  thought,  and,  therefore,  is 
better  prepared  before  than  after  the  sermon.  Pertinency  of 
tone  as  well  as  of  thought  is  important.  The  introduction  is 
a  promise.  It  should  justify  itself.  It  commits  the  preacher. 
It  should  not  disappoint. 

Preliminariness  is  another.  It  introduces  the  subject  but 
does  not  anticipate  it.  It  opens  the  way,  prepares  for  the  dis- 
cussion, does  not  begin  it.  It  does  not  reach  over  into  the  main 
body  of  the  sermon  and  appropriate  material  that  properly 
belongs  to  it.  It  takes  up  what  has  a  preparative  bearing  on 
the  subject,  but  does  not  discuss  the  subject  itself.  As  being 
preparative,  it  is  distinctive.  Introduction,  theme  and  discus- 
sion are  not  so  run  together  that  it  is  difficult  to  find  the  line  of 
demarcation  between  them.  The  introduction  should  be 
known  at  once  from  its  introductory  quality.  This  is  possible 
without  formal  and  obtrusive  division. 

Reversely,  what  belongs  to  the  introduction  cannot  properly 
be  smuggled  over  into  the  body  of  the  sermon.  Its  work  is 
to  clear  the  ground.     The  explanatory  introduction  is  pre- 


294  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

eminently  the  ground-clearing  introduction.  Robertson's 
sermon  on  "The  IHusiveness  of  Life"  is  defective  here.  In- 
stead of  finishing  in  the  introduction  the  explanation  of  the 
text  and  fully  clearing  up  the  matter,  he  carries  it  over  and  re- 
introduces it  in  the  first  division  of  the  sermon,  as  if  he  were 
dissatisfied  with  his  preliminary  exposition.  He  turns  upon 
his  track.  He  re-enters  the  harbor  after  reaching  the  open  sea. 
This  is  particularly  objectionable  in  a  sermon  whose  theme 
takes  us  so  wide  afield  from  the  original  historic  sense  of  the 
passage  as  this  does,  and  that  puts  us  upon  a  wholly  new  line 
of  thought.  "No  step  backward"  is  a  good  motto  for  the 
preacher. 

Coherency,  or  close  and  harmonious  relation  of  thought 
in  the  introduction  is  another  quality.  "The  thoughts  of  the 
introduction,"  says  Claude,  "must  hold  each  other  by  the  hand 
and  have  a  mutual  dependence  and  subordination."  Progress 
is  necessary  to  coherence.  The  introduction  that  moves  in  a 
straight  line,  in  an  orderly,  progressive  manner,  will  be  sure 
to  move  connectedly  and  coherently.  Bushnell's  introductions, 
in  all  ways  admirable,  are  especially  notable  for  this  straight 
line  movement.  Robertson's  sermon  on  "Caiaphas'  view  of 
Vicarious  Sacrifice"  is  a  good  example  of  the  progressive, 
coherent  introduction.  It  moves  straight  on,  step  by  step,  each 
successive  step  bringing  us  nearer  the  theme;  all  the  parts 
support  each  other,  and  all  throw  light  upon  the  coming  theme. 
They  are  all  tributary  to  the  preacher's  purpose  to  show 
Caiaphas'  state  of  minci  in  uttering  the  words  of  the  text. 

2.  The  form  qualities  of  the  introduction  are  such  as  relate 
to  the  expression  of  its  thought. 

Concreteness  is  one  of  them.  This  is,  indeed,  a  quality  of 
substance  as  well  as  of  form.  It  suggests  the  absence  of 
abstract  forms  of  thought  and  abstruse  forms  of  expression. 
Such  forms  of  expression  are  too  remote  for  introductory 
work.     In  the  process  of  discussion  the  preacher  will   find 


THE     INTRODUCTION  295 

himself  in  the  realm  of  abstract  thought.  No  instructive 
preacher,  however  illustrative  his  method,  can  wholly  evade  it, 
nor  should  he  wish  to  do  so.  But  such  thought,  even  in  the 
discussion,  would  better  be  expressed  in  concrete  terms.  In 
the  introduction  it  is  of  still  greater  importance.  No  hearer 
is  ready  or  willing  to  start  in  the  realm  of  the  abstract  and 
the  abstruse.  He  is  in  no  condition  of  mind  for  it.  What  is 
said  here  must  be  readily  apprehended.  What  is  said  may  be 
remote  and  for  the  moment  obscure  in  its  bearings,  but  if  in 
itself  readily  intelligible  and  expressed  in  concrete  language, 
it  will  awaken  the  greater  interest.  Technical  exegesis  may  lie 
behind  the  expository  introduction,  but  it  should  never  be  ex- 
pressed in  technical  language.  A  preacher  should  cultivate 
literary  skill  in  interpreting  his  text.  A  skillful  paraphrase, 
of  which  Dr.  Bushnell  was  master,  is  an  effective  method  of 
exposition.  In  the  introduction  especially  a  combination  of 
what  may  be  relatively  remote  in  its  bearings  or  even  for  the 
moment  obscure  in  its  meaning,  with  what  is  familiar  and  near 
at  hand  in  its  forms  of  expression  and  interpretation  is  desira- 
ble. We  have  a  liking  for  what  is  familiar,  but  the  merely 
familiar  is  the  commonplace,  and  the  commonplace  does  not 
attract  or  move  us.  It  is  true  that  we  have  a  curious  liking 
for  what  is  unfamiliar  and  remote,  provided  we  see,  or  believe 
or  suspect,  that  it  has  some  relation  to  what  is  known.  But 
what  is  simply  and  wholly  remote  and  unknown  is  so  far  away 
from  us  that  it  fails  to  influence  us.  It  is  when  we  associate 
what  is  familiar  with  what  is  relatively  unfamiliar  and  possibly 
obscure  in  itself  or  especially  in  its  bearings  that  it  becomes 
interesting  at  once.  Here  lies  the  power  of  concrete  language. 
One  can  not  make  what  is  so  remote  as  to  be  unknown  or  un- 
intelligible interesting  without  associating  it  with  something 
that  is  better  known,  or  so  well  known  as  to  be  familiar,  just 
as  one  can  not  make  what  is  so  familiar  as  to  be  commonplace 
interesting  without  association  with  what  is  less  well  known. 


296  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

A  story  may  be  in  itself  so  familiar  as  to  be  uninterestingly 
common,  but  when  introduced  to  illustrate  a  truth  that  is  not 
wholly  familiar  or  is  less  familiar,  or  for  the  moment  remote 
in  its  bearings,  it  becomes  interesting  and  impressive  and  in- 
structive. The  truth  takes  on  a  new  meaning,  and  the  story 
itself  has  a  new  meaning.  This  is  why  a  pertinent,  well-told 
story  is  valuable  introductory  material. 

Simplicity  is  involved  in  concreteness,  but  may  well  be 
specifically  considered.  It  is  the  opposite,  however,  not  only 
of  the  abstract  and  the  abstruse  and  the  remote,  the  puzzling 
and  obscure,  but  of  the  artificial,  or  perfcrvid  or  the  bombastic. 
It  is  associated  with  what  is  natural  and  genuine  and  self- 
poised.  An  utterance  that  seems  strained  and  artificial  or 
over-dramatic  is  everywhere  intolerable  in  preaching.  But  it 
is  especially  intolerable  to  start  with  a  scream  or  with  a  strut. 
One  may  indeed  begin  at  high  pressure.  The  subject,  the 
occasion,  the  preparation  may  sanction  or  even  necessitate  it. 
Phillips  Brooks  began  with  a  full  volume  of  energy  and  kept 
it  up  to  the  end.  He  was  emotionally  full  of  his  subject  at  the 
outset  and  it  was  all  natural  and  genuine.  But  after  all  it 
was  largely  a  matter  of  delivery.  The  introduction  as  read 
does  not  strike  us  as  perfervid  or  lacking  in  reflective  poise, 
and  certainly  it  is  perfectly  simple  rhetorically,  The  normal 
movement  of  an  introduction  is  from  a  simple,  quiet,  self- 
possessed  and  possibly  somewhat  reserved  beginning  to  an 
increase  of  emotional  vigor.  A  natural  deliberation  and  self- 
poise,  clear,  distinct  articulation  and  a  simple,  natural, 
perspicuous  type  of  diction  always  make  a  favorable  impres- 
sion at  the  outset  Robertson  sometimes  closed  his  sermon 
in  a  tempest,  but  his  introductions  illustrate  the  power  of  sim- 
plicity, of  reflective  deliberation  and  self-mastery. 

Propriety  is  associated  with  simplicity.  It  is  a  question  not 
only  of  good  literary  or  rhetorical,  but  of  good  ethical  taste 
and  judgment.     Nothing  can  redeem  a  sermon  that  starts  with 


THE     INTRODUCTION  297 

a  rhetorical  blunder,  which  is  often  nothing  less  than  a  moral 
blunder.  If  a  preacher  is  going  to  blunder,  if  he  must  enter 
the  abyss  of  rhetorical  indecency,  he  would  better  postpone  it. 
The  sensational  preacher,  in  his  effort  to  be  striking,  is  likely 
to  enter  the  abyss  at  once.  It  is  the  initial  sin.  He  falls  from 
rhetorical  grace,  like  Adam,  at  the  start.  No  man  in  effort  to 
win  attention  and  to  be  impressive  has  any  vocation  to  become 
an  offense  to  those  whose  mental,  aesthetic  and  moral  tastes 
and  judgments  are  entitled  to  respect. 

Brevity  is  in  part  a  matter  of  form,  and  economy  of  diction 
is  tributary  to  it,  as  diffuseness  is  tributary  to  prolixity.  Brev- 
ity is  necessary  in  introductory  work,  just  because  it  is  intro- 
ductory. As  to  limits,  no  rule  can  be  given.  To  fix  upon 
one-eighth  of  a  sermon,  or  one-twelfth,  as  is  sometimes  done, 
is  arbitrary.  Preachers  vary  in  this  matter  in  their  own  preach- 
ing. Bushnell's  introductions  vary  from  one-eighth  to  one- 
twentieth.  Guthrie's,  in  one  of  his  volumes,  from  one-fifth 
to  one-half.  Robertson's  from  one-third  to  one-sixteenth. 
The  preachers  of  former  days  had  the  long  introduction. 
Tillotson  and  South  and  Barrow  in  the  seventeenth  century 
were  exceptions  among  their  comtemporaries  in  the  matter  of 
brevity  and  their  influence  in  this  regard,  as  in  others,  was  re- 
formatory. Modern  preachers  affect  the  short  introduction. 
The  evangelistic  discourse  naturally  has  a  shorter  introduction 
than  the  pastoral  discourse.  The  proper  mean  is  between  an 
extreme  of  abruptness  and  an  extreme  of  prolixity.  The  re- 
flective quality  of  the  introduction  tends  to  condensation  of 
style  and  thus  to  brevity. 

No  adherence  to  formal  rules  will  secure  good  introductory 
work,  although  intelligent  appropriation  of  rhetorical  princi- 
ples may  be  effective.  Nor  will  imitation  do  it.  The  work  is 
wrought  largely  in  unconsciousness  of  rules  or  models.  Still 
both  may  be  of  value,  especially  in  the  early  period  of  one's 
ministry.     The  study  of  good  modern  introductory  work  is 


298  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

of  special  value.  But  it  is  after  all  by  constant  and  intelligent 
practice  that  one  at  last  becomes  wholly  unfettered  and  spon- 
taneous in  his  work. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  THEME 

I.  Its  Significance  and  Importance 
The  theme  is  the  subject  in  its  undeveloped  form.  It  is 
the  germ  of  the  sermon.  Like  all  germs,  it  is  complex,  con- 
taining more  than  a  single  element.  It  consists  of  a  complex 
of  thoughts  out  of  which  in  his  discussion  the  preacher  brings 
such  varieties  as  are  adapted  to  the  realization  of  his  object. 
The  theme  may  always  be  put  in  the  form  of  a  definite,  com- 
plex statement.  It  contains  explicitly  or  implicitly  a  proposi- 
tion. Such  proposition  always  contains  the  unified  elements 
of  complex  thought.  Unity  in  complexity  is,  therefore,  the 
characteristic  and  proper  test  of  a  theme.  The  title  of  a  ser- 
mon may  not  be  its  theme.  It  may  be  much  more  comprehen- 
sive and  indefinite  than  the  theme.  A  single  word  may  be  a 
proper  title,  but  it  is  never  a  proper  theme.  We  suggest  the 
unity  of  the  theme  when  we  say  that  the  sermon  can  have  but 
one  subject.  We  suggest  the  definiteness  of  the  theme,  when 
we  say  that  it  should  be  so  conceived  and  stated  as  accurately 
to  condition  the  limits  of  its  treatment.  We  suggest  the  com- 
plexity of  the  theme  when  we  say  that  the  sermon  should  dis- 
cuss more  than  a  single  phase  of  it.  We  suggest  the  complete- 
ness of  the  theme  as  a  unified  whole  when  we  say  that  it  should 
contain  all  that  is  to  be  discussed  in  the  sermon.  These  may 
be  called  the  logical  qualities  of  the  theme,  or  those  qualities 
that  are  involved  in  its  thought  relations. 

There  are  various  terms  used  to  designate  the  complex 
thought  that  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  sermon.  They  all 
in  some  way  suggest  its  unity.   The  most  comprehensive  term 


30O  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

is  subject,  i.  e.,  what  lies  under  the  whole  sermon,  the  one 
foundation  on  which  all  rests.  It  is  too  broad  a  term.  The 
subject  is  not  always  the  exact  theme.  Topic  is  too  narrow  a 
term.  It  is  the  place  where  all  the  elements  of  thought  in  the 
discussion  are  found  and  from  which  they  are  derived,  the 
storehouse  where  they  are  all  gathered,  and,  as  coming  from 
this  one  source,  they  are  all  interrelated  and  so  are  legitimate 
to  the  discussion.  But  properly  the  topic  is  not  identical  with 
the  theme,  for  it  is  generally,  although  not  always,  applied  to 
a  single  phase  of  the  theme. 

Proposition  is  too  distinctive  a  term.  It  is  what  is  set  be- 
fore the  preacher  as  the  one  object  of  his  homiletic  activity. 
But  technically  the  proposition  is  a  particular  kind  of  theme. 
/.  e.,  one  stated  in  logical  form,  and  with  reference  to  logical 
proof.  Theme  is  at  once  definite  and  comprehensive.  It 
is  what  is  laid  down  as  the  single  basis  of  the  sermon, 
what  the  sermon  is  built  on.  All  these  terms  in- 
volve the  conceptions  of  unity  and  complexity.  Various 
phrases  also  suggest  this  unity  and  complexity.  The  preacher 
will  speak  "about"  something.  His  thoughts  will  gather 
around  some  centre,  and  in  all  their  complexities,  they  are 
held  together  in  unity.  He  will  address  the  congregation 
"upon"  or  "on"  some  subject.  That  is,  his  discussion  will 
rest  upon  a  single  foundation.  He  will  speak  "of"  or  "from" 
such  and  such  a  text  or  theme.  What  he  says  will,  therefore, 
have  unity  of  source.  His  discussion  is  "concerning"  this  or 
that.  It  is  the  one  objective  point  with  which  his  mental 
activity  concerns  itself.  Centralized  thought  is  suggested  by 
all  these  forms  of  expression.  We  use  them  freely  without 
reflecting  upon  their  significance.  But  we  use  them  legitimately 
only  as  we  are  faithful  to  their  implications.  Something  is 
accomplished  when  this  principle  of  thematic  unity  is  duly  and 
securely  fixed.  It  is  a  bad  thing  to  be  obliged  to  say  of  a 
sermon  what  the  Frenchman  said  of  his  book  in  the  title  given 


THE  THEME  301 

it ;  "Sur — je  ne  sais  quoi."  Upon — I  know  not  what.  Whate- 
ley  says  :*  "Experience  shows  that  it  is  by  no  means  uncom- 
mon for  a  young  and  uninstructed  writer  to  content  himself 
with  such  a  vague  and  indistinct  view  of  the  point  he  is  to 
aim  at — that  the  whole  train  of  his  reasoning  is  in  consequence 
affected  with  a  corresponding  perplexity,  obscurity  and  loose- 
ness." This  may  be  true  as  regards  the  subject  as  well  as  the 
object  of  the  discussion.  He  criticises  also,*  as  a  common  fault 
of  such  writers,  "entering  upon  too  wide  a  field  of  discussion," 
and  imagining  "that  because  they  are  treating  of  one  thing, 
they  are  discussing  one  question."  Cardinal  Newmanf  on  the 
same  general  subject  speaks  as  follows;  "I  would  go  the 
length  of  recommending  a  preacher  to  place  a  distinct  proposi- 
tion before  him,  such  as  he  can  write  down  in  a  form  of  words 
and  limit  his  discussion  by  it  and  to  aim  in  all  he  says  to  bring 
it  out  and  nothing  else.  Nothing  is  so  fatal  to  the  effect  of  a 
sermon  as  preaching  on  three  or  four  subjects  at  once."  He 
illustrates  from  the  supposed  case  of  an  immature  college  boy 
who  has  placed  before  him  the  task  of  writing  upon  the 
proposition  "Fortes  fortuna  adjuvat,"  and  detaches  the  word 
"fortuna"  and  makes  that  the  basis  of  his  thesis.  "Fortuna  is 
not  a  subject,"  he  says.  "It  would  have  been  very  cruel  to 
tell  a  boy  to  write  on  fortune ;  it  would  have  been  like  asking 
him  his  opinion  of  things  in  general.  Fortune  is  good  or  bad, 
capricious,  unexpected,  ten  thousand  things  all  at  once,  and 
one  of  them  as  much  as  another.  Ten  thousand  things  may  be 
said  of  it;  give  me  one  of  them  and  I  will  write  upon  it.  I 
can  not  write  on  more  than  one,"  etc.,  etc.  "Fortes  fortuna  ad- 
juvat" is  a  proposition;  it  states  a  certain  general  principle, 
and  this  is  just  what  an  ordinary  boy  would  be  sure  to  miss. 
This  is  doubtless  instruction  for  the  primary  grade.  But  ob- 
servation proves  that  it  is  pertinent  to  those  who  are  supposed 

*  Elements  of  Rhetoric,  page  54. 

t  Lectures  on  University  Subjects,  page  100  ff. 


302  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

to  have  advanced  far  beyond  it.  To  get  a  proper  theme,  then, 
a  definite,  complex,  unified  thought,  capable,  although  it  need 
not  always  be  done,  of  being  put  into  the  form  of  a  proposition, 
— this  is  an  important  step  in  sermon  preparation.  A  process 
of  analysis  may  be  necessary  in  order  to  secure  this.  One 
must  find  out  the  elements  of  thought  that  lie  in  the  text, 
must  detach  these  elements,  or  such  of  them  as  one  may  wish 
to  select  for  use  and  then  gather  them  by  recombination  into 
some  central,  all  embracing,  unified  thought.  The  product 
of  such  analysis  and  synthesis  should  be  a  proper  theme.  If 
one  gets  his  theme  independently  of  the  text,  some- 
thing of  the  same  process  may  be  necessary.  An 
analysis  and  synthesis  of  both  text  and  subject  are  com- 
bined. The  theme  will  then  take  shape  and  color  from  the 
elements  of  both. 

The  importance  of  the  theme  can  not  be  measured  by  the 
space  it  occupies  in  the  organism  of  the  sermon.  Like  the 
heart  or  brain  in  the  human  body,  it  is  to  be  measured,  not  by 
its  size,  but  by  its  function.  Prof.  Phelps  in  his  "Theory  of 
Preaching,"  devotes  eighty-two  pages  to  the  discussion  of  it ; 
sixty  pages  to  the  plan  and  not  quite  thirty  pages  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  sermon.  That  is,  the  theme  receives  more 
than  one-third  the  amount  of  attention  that  is  given  to  the  plan 
and  almost  three  times  as  much  attention  as  that  given  to  the 
development.  The  entire  discussion  is  over-elaborate  perhaps. 
There  may  also  be  a  disproportion  in  it.  But  at  any  rate  it 
suggests  the  centrality,  the  vitality,  and  the  supreme  signifi- 
cance of  the  theme. 

n.     Its  Formulation 
This  question  receives  but  little  attention  in  the  preaching  of 
our  day,  and  seemingly  it  is  regarded  as  unimportant.     Reac- 
tion against  the  formal  methods  of  a  former  period  and  de- 
votion to  the  ofThand,  businesslike  method  with  which  we  are 


THE  THEME  303 

all  so  familiar  largely  accounts  for  this.  But  as  against  all 
this  I  insist  upon  its  importance.  From  what  has  been  said 
it  may  be  inferred  that  the  theme  should  at  any  rate  take 
very  definite  form  in  the  mind  of  the  preacher.  With 
respect  to  this  question  the  following  suggestions  are 
pertinent. 

I.  The  theme  should  have  a  prominence  proportionate  to 
its  importance.  A  distinctness  of  statement  or  a  definiteness 
of  suggestion  or  intimation  adequate  to  a  clear  apprehension 
on  the  part  of  the  hearer  is  the  chief  demand.  One  may 
put  his  audience  in  possession  of  his  theme  in  a  great  variety 
of  ways.  It  may  be  done  by  formal  announcement  or  by 
facile  intimation.  It  may  be  done  propositionally  or  rhetoric- 
ally, in  exceptional  cases,  following  the  inductive  method,  it 
may  be  done  at  the  end  of  the  sermon,  or  following  the  de- 
ductive method,  which  is  the  more  common  homiletic  method, 
at  the  beginning.  Facility  and  variety  in  the  method  of  pro- 
jecting the  theme  are  desirable.  It  is  well  to  awaken  the 
curiosity  and  inquisitiveness  of  the  hearer  in  one's  approach 
to  his  theme.  But  however  it  may  be  done  it  should  be  done 
with  sufficient  definiteness  for  clear  apprehension,  and  how- 
ever one  may  reach  his  theme  the  hearer  should  know  that  he 
has  reached  it,  and  should  know  what  it  is.  If  a  preacher 
doesn't  propose  to  tell  his  hearers  what  he  is  going  to  talk 
about,  if  he  puts  upon  them  the  task  of  finding  out  for  them- 
selves, let  them  so  understand  it.  But  if  he  attempts  to  get 
his  theme  before  them,  it  is  a  proper  thing  for  him  to  succeed 
in  doing  it.  In  deliberative  and  judicial  oratory  the  exact 
question  in  discussion  is  of  some  importance.  Respect  for 
himself  as  a  public  speaker,  for  his  profession,  for  his  au- 
dience, for  his  case  or  question,  respect  for  his  success  in  carry- 
ing his  case  or  question,  impels  the  secular  orator  to  exactness 
of  conception  and  of  statement.  Is  Christian  oratory  less 
important?     Respect    for    the    truth    and    regard    for    effec- 


304  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

tiveness  accentuate  the  demand  upon  the  preacher.  When 
he  undertakes  to  get  his  subject  before  his  audience, 
he  should  succeed,  so  that  there  be  no  misapprehension 
about  it. 

Especially  necessary  is  this  whenever  there  is  liability  to  mis- 
apprehension by  reason  of  defect  in  the  hearer.  Immaturity, 
ignorance,  dullness,  inattention  and  indifference  are  prolific  of 
misunderstanding,  and  hostility  may  readily  pervert  the 
preacher's  meaning.  It  is  singular  with  what  facility  even  in- 
telligent hearers  misinterpret  the  preacher.  There  are  but 
few  preachers  that  have  not  had  startling  experiences  in  this 
matter.  Definite  formal  statement  is  desirable  whenever  one 
anticipates  such  liability  to  mistake.  For  the  sake  even  of  a 
small  section  of  the  congregation  one  is  bound  to  clearness  of 
statement.  One  may  respect  his  audience  without  over-taxing 
it.  It  is  idle  to  imagine  that  one  may  successfully  throw  the 
responsibility  upon  the  congregation,  or  that  they  will  resent 
the  preacher's  solicitude  for  clarity  of  statement.  The 
preacher  is  responsible  that  the  hearer  know  just  what  he  is 
going  to  talk  about. 

Difficult  subjects  demand  careful  statement,  subjects  that 
are  in  themselves  weighty  and  demand  careful  discussion,  or 
that  have  difficult  texts  that  require  careful  explanation,  or 
that  are  complicated  or  puzzling,  or  that  for  whatever  reason 
require  close  attention.  Definite  statement  may  even  be  con- 
ducive to  rhetorical  effectiveness. 

It  is  generally  assumed  that  the  textual  sermon  may  treat 
the  theme  with  great  freedom.  But  if  the  content  of  the  text 
is  exceptionally  complex,  it  may  well  be  gathered  into  a  theme 
for  the  sake  of  unity.  Robertson's  themes  are  always  included 
in  his  topics.  The  topics  cover  the  theme  well  enough,  but  not 
infrequently  it  would  be  better  if  the  theme  were  detached 
from  the  divisions  and  definitely  stated.  Then  at  a  glance 
theme  and  divisions  would  vindicate  each  other. 


THE  THEME  305 

It  is  also  commonly  taken  for  granted  that  the  expository 
sermon  needs  no  theme.  But  if  the  text  content  is  large  and 
complex  it  were  better  if  it  were  subsumed  under  one  central 
and  inclusive  thought.  It  is  the  statement  of  the  theme  that 
differentiates  the  expository  sermon  from  the  homily.  The 
homily  needs  no  theme,  for  it  does  not  discuss  one  subject. 
But  it  no  longer  satisfies  the  needs  of  the  pulpit.  The  rambling 
cljaracter  of  expository  preaching,  which  is  one  of  the  chief 
objections  against  it,  would  be  obviated  by  the  formulation  of 
a  theme  that  contains  its  entire  material,  e.  g.,  James  i :  19 — 
21,26.  Theme :  "The  sins  of  the  tongue."  i.  Source,  2.  Result, 
3.     Corrective. 

A  definite  conception  and  statement  of  the  theme  is  of  value 
first,  in  keeping  the  sermon  in  good  form.  It  is  the  more 
likely  thus  to  be  kept  in  the  form  of  an  address  as  distinguished 
from  that  of  an  essay.  At  any  rate,  it  imposes  an  additional 
motive  upon  the  preacher  to  keep  within  limits  in  his  discus- 
sion. One  feels  the  pressure  of  necessity  to  do  what  one  is 
advertised  to  do.  Secondly,  it  is  of  value  in  enabling  the 
hearer  the  better  to  retain  the  sermon.  It  puts  him  in  definite 
possession  of  the  subject  at  the  outset.  All  embarrassment  of 
uncertainity  is  thus  avoided.  Holding  it  at  the  start,  one 
keeps  it  to  the  end  and  tests  the  sermon  by  it  at  every  step. 
This  may  well  offset  all  minor  objections  against  the  formality 
of  a  definite  statement.  It  should  certainly  discredit  all  caprice 
and  indifiference  about  it.  It  should  be  no  weighty  objection 
to  the  homiletic  free  lance  that  preachers  of  a  former  period 
were  careful  to  state  their  themes.  Homiletic  standards  have 
changed  and  the  abandonment  of  doctrinal  preaching  doubt- 
less lessens  somewhat,  the  demand  for  formal  statement.  But 
a  rhetorical  or  literary  taste  that  should  discredit  care  in  get- 
ting important  subjects  somehow  before  the  audience  would 
be  shallow  and  meretricious.  Rhetorical  facility  and  efl;ec- 
tiveness    are    not    dependent    upon    a    slack    grip    of   one's 


3o6  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

subject.     The  educative  preaclicr  will   treat  his  theme  with 
respect. 

2.  But  definiteness  of  apprehension  is  not  unconditionally 
dependent  upon  formal  statement.  In  unelaborate  discourse, 
elaborate  statement  is  never  necessary.  Facile  intimation  may 
be  more  appropriate.  Formal  statement  would  seem  gratuitous 
and  perhaps  pretentious. 

The  Text  may  adequately  suggest  the  theme.  If  it  is  short, 
simple,  clear  and  presents  at  once  a  definite  complex  thought, 
it  is  all  that  is  needed.  It  would  be  more  than  needless  to 
formulate  a  theme  from  the  words,  "Christ  who  is  our  life," 
or  the  words  "One  thing  is  needful."  An  ofThand  suggestion 
in  rhetorical  form  might  be  worth  while,  but  even  this  is 
needless. 

Dr.  Guthrie  generally  lets  the  text  suggest  his  theme,  e.  g., 
Hosea  7:  9,  "Gray  hairs  are  here  and  there  upon  him,  etc." 
Title;  "Neglected  warnings."  This  would  be  a  good  sugges- 
tion of  the  theme.  But  the  preacher  assumes  that  the  text  has 
done  the  work,  and  there  is  no  stated  theme  at  all.  This  is  a 
case  where  the  "final  theme"  might  well  be  substituted  for 
the  "casual  theme"  if  one  were  to  suggest  a  theme  at  all,  /.  c, 
the  object  rather  than  the  subject  of  the  sermon  might  be 
stated,  e.  g.,  "It  is  my  purpose  to  remind  you  of  the  danger  of 
unheeded  admonition."  But  there  is  no  need  even  of  this.  The 
text  is  sufficient.  Ps.  130:4,  "There  is  forgiveness  with  Thee 
that  thou  mayest  be  feared."  The  title  would  be  a  good  theme. 
"Forgiveness  and  fear."  But  Dr.  Guthrie  does  not  avail  him- 
self of  it.  He  points  out  in  the  introduction  the  apparent  in- 
congruity between  forgiveness  and  fear  and  attaches  himself 
at  once  to  the  text  with  the  words;  "In  opening  up  the  subject 
of  the  text,  I  observe,"  etc.  Is.  59:  i,  "Behold  the  Lord's  hand 
is  not  shortened,"  etc.  The  introduction  takes  up  the  thought 
of  change.  But  God  does  not  change,  and  it  concludes  thus : 
"Therefore,  speaking  of  Him,  the  prophet  says  'Behold'  "  etc. 


THE  THEME  307 

The  text  as  thus  repeated  together  with  the  introduction  fur- 
nishes a  sufficient  basis  for  the  discussion.  The  title  would 
make  a  good  statement  of  the  theme.  But  Dr.  Guthrie  is  too 
offhand  to  utilize  it.  His  texts,  however,  are  generally  simple 
and  clear  and  readily  suggest  his  subjects. 

The  introduction  may  adequately  do  the  work  of  announce- 
ment, especially  if  it  be  the  expository  introduction.  Canon 
Liddon  generally  makes  his  introductions  do  this  work.  His 
texts  are  simple,  his  subjects  come  obviously  from  them,  and 
his  introductions  are  explanatory  and  succeed  in  getting  the 
thought  discussed  clearly  before  his  hearers.  As  we  have  seen, 
Dr.  Guthrie  relies  upon  his  introductions  as  well  as  texts  in 
this  interest.  So  does  Bishop  Brooks.  Here  is  the  value  of 
good  introductory  work. 

The  occasion  may  furnish  the  theme.  A  funeral  or  a  memo- 
rial discourse  speaks  for  itself.  Such  discourses  have  always 
been  characterized  by  homiletic  freedom.  Evangelistic  dis- 
courses are  less  dependent  than  pastoral  discourses  upon  the 
formulated  theme.  Direct  impression  rather  than  instruction 
is  the  object.  It  is  when  we  wish  to  make  an  impression  in- 
directly, i.  c,  through  mental  and  moral  judgments,  that  we 
are  careful  to  formulate  the  theme.  Here  we  deal  with  the 
subject  in  its  related  thought-elements.  In  the  evangelistic 
sermon,  where  the  text  is  used  for  direct  application  rather 
than  for  instruction  a  statement  of  the  object  may  be  better 
than  a  statement  of  the  subject. 

HI.     Methods  of  Statement 
All  methods  are  included  in  the  comprehensive  division  of 
rhetorical  and  logical  or  propositional.    We  will  consider  them 
in  order. 

I.  The  rhetorical  method  of  statement  is  non-propositional 
It  contains  no  definite  expression  of  judgment.  It  is  adapted 
to  such  discussion  as  seeks  impression  by  rhetorical  methods 


3o8  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

as  distinguished  from  impression  by  argument,  dialectic  or 
logic.  Hence  called  the  rhetorical  method,  e.  g.,  Heb.  3:19. 
"So  we  see  that  they  were  not  able  to  enter  in  (to  rest)  be- 
cause of  unbelief."  The  unrest  of  an  unbelieving  Heart. 
Matt.  16:26.  "For  what  shall  a  man  be  profited,"  etc.  The 
priceless  worth  of  the  Higher  Life.  Hosea  7:9.  "Gray  hairs 
are  here  and  there  upon  him,"  etc.  Neglected  warnings.  Is. 
59:  I.  "Behold  the  Lord's  hand  is  not  shortened,"  etc.  The 
Undecaying  Power  and  Grace  of  God.  Acts  10:  19.  "While 
Peter  thought  on  the  Vision,"  etc.  Visions  and  Tasks.  John 
12:36.  "Simon  Peter  saith  unto  him.  Lord,  whither  goest 
thou,"  etc.     The  Withheld  Completions  of  Life. 

2.  The  logical  method  is  propositional.  It  is  a  formal  ex- 
pression of  judgment  and  calls  for  proof.  It  is  the  method 
that  is  adapted  to  argumentative  processes.  The  discussion  is 
responsible  to  bring  out  the  relations  of  thought  contained  in 
the  proposition.  Hence  called  logical :  c.  g.,  "Unbelief  is  a 
source  of  unrest.  I  am  here  to  remind  you  that  there  is  dan- 
ger in  unheeded  admonition.  There  are  no  limits  to  the  Power 
and  Grace  of  God.  Vision  realizes  its  purpose  only  as  trans- 
lated into  Task.  Human  life  never  realizes  its  full  fruition." 
These  are  formal  expressions  of  judgment.  They  call  for 
some  sort  of  evidence.  It  may  be  argumentative  or  illus- 
trative, according  to  the  nature  and  object  of  the  discussion. 
The  simpler  subjects  are  naturally  illustrated.  But  no  theme 
stated  propositionally  should  fail  of  support  by  some  sort 
of  evidence.  The  thought-relation  between  subject  and  predi- 
cate must  be  maintained,  c.  g.,  the  thought-relation  in  the 
above-mentioned  theme  between  unbelief  and  unrest  of 
soul,  llie  possible  range  in  the  discussion  of  subjects 
thus  stated  is  very  great  and  the  possible  limitations  of 
the  subject  varied,  e.  g.,  the  reasons  why  unrest  follows 
unbelief,  the  forms  of  such  unrest,  the  kind  of  unbelief, 
whether  mental  or  moral,  that  produce  unrest.     As  to  the 


THE  THEME  309 

method  of  discussion,  one  may  argue  from  the  constitution 
of  the  human  soul  or  may  illustrate  from  example  and  ex- 
perience. The  introduction  will  lead  up  to  the  particular 
theme  that  is  chosen  and  the  specific  statement  of  the  theme 
will  fix  the  general  direction  in  which  the  sermon  will 
move. 

3.  The  two  forms  may  be  stated  affirmatively,  negatively 
or  interrogatively.  The  title  to  one  of  Dr.  Bushnell's  ser- 
mons, "Christ  waiting  to  find  room,"  illustrates  the  affirm- 
ative rhetorical  method.  His  statement  of  the  theme;  "The 
very  impressive  fact  that  Jesus  could  not  find  room  in  the 
world,  and  has  never  yet  been  able  to  find  it"  illustrates 
the  logical  negative  method.  "No  room  for  Christ"  il- 
lustrates the  rhetorical  negative  method,  and  "Jesus  waited 
and  is  waiting  still  to  find  room"  the  logical  afifirmative 
method.  "No  room  for  Christ?"  and  "Why  is  it  that  Christ 
found  no  room  and  has  never  yet  found  room?"  may  il- 
lustrate the  interrogative  method.  "The  unrest  of  the  un- 
believing heart."  "Unbelief  is  the  mother  of  unrest."  "The 
impossibility  of  rest  for  the  unbelieving  heart."  "There  is 
no  rest  for  the  unbelieving  heart."  "Why  unbelief  means 
unrest."  "What  rest  for  the  unbelieving  heart?"  These  state- 
ments still  further  illustrate  the  affirmative,  negative  and 
interrogative  forms  of  the  two  methods.  Each,  it  is  evident, 
will,  if  properly  developed,  result  in  a  distinctive  discussion. 
The  statement  will  condition  the  plan  and  development. 
The  affirmative  is  the  more  common  form.  It  is  general 
and  comprehensive  in  character.  The  other  forms  are  more 
specific.  The  negative  form  calls  for  a  negative  discussion 
corresponding.  The  interrogative  form  is  of  value  in  dis- 
cussing difficult  or  delicate  or  offensive  themes.  It  may 
encourage  a  certain  delicacy  of  treatment,  and  may  result 
in  a  more  persuasive  type  of  preaching.  It  may  also  condi- 
tion a  more  definite  appeal.      If   these   questions    of   form 


310  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

were  more  carefully  considered,  it  is  possible  that  preacb- 
inrj  would  be  more  varied,  more  attractive  and  more 
persuasive. 

4.  It  is  evident  at  once  that  the  two  forms  are  inter- 
changeable. The  possibility  of  such  interchange  is  the  mark 
of  a  proper  theme.  The  rhetorical  form  always  contains 
a  potential  proposition. 

5.  The  choice  of  form  will  depend  largely  upon  the  char- 
acter and  object  of  the  sermon.  But  the  quality  of  the  text, 
the  occasion,  the  audience,  or  the  tendencies  or  capacities 
of  the  preacher  are  also  considerations  to  be  taken  into 
account. 

6.  The  points  of  relative  value  in  the  two  forms  may 
well   be   considered. 

The  rhetorical  form  presents  the  theme  in  the  most  com- 
prehensive and  indefinite  manner;  the  logical  form  more 
limitedly  and  definitely.  If  one  wishes  range  he  will  choose 
the  former,  if  close  limits,  the  latter. 

The  rhetorical  form  admits  of  greater  variety  of  treatment. 
Range  conditions  variety.  The  only  assignable  limit  is  the 
nature  and  object  of  the  sermon.  A  great  variety  of 
methods  of  treatment  or  of  topics  is,  therefore,  available. 
Take  once  more  Heb.  3 :  19.  Note  the  possible  methods, 
€.  g.,  discussion  by  reflection  or  deduction  of  inferential  topics, 
by  illustration  and  example,  by  explication  or  analysis,  by 
practical  application,  by  the  interrogative  process.  The 
logical  form,  because  it  invites  a  more  definite  formal  dis- 
cussion and  hence  limits  the  preacher,  will  not  so  readily 
yield  itself  to  a  wide  range  and  variety  in  treatment.  By 
limiting  freedom,  however,  it  may  secure  a  more  definite, 
concentrated  and  vigorous  discussion,  and  so  secure  a 
more  decisive  result.  Some  themes  demand  closer  treat- 
ment than  others  and  some  sermons  demand  more  definite 
and  specific  aim  than  others. 


THE  THEME  311 

The  rhetorical  form  is  adapted  to  the  simpler  class  of 
sermons,  the  logical  to  the  weightier  class.  No  preacher  of 
good  taste  or  judgment  would  think  of  putting  into  prep- 
ositional form  a  theme  from  the  text,  "One  thing  is  need- 
ful." The  text,  although  in  the  form  of  a  proposition  is 
so  simple  that  it  calls  for  discussion  by  way  of  reflection 
rather  than  argumentative  elaboration.  The  rhetorical  form 
is  the  only  one  admissible. 

The  rhetorical  form,  it  follows  in  this  connection,  is 
adapted  to  what  is  called  suggestive  preaching,  i.e.,  preach- 
ing in  which  the  material  is  used  indirectly  by  some  proc- 
ess of  reflection  or  illustration,  or  practical  application, 
rather  than  by  an  elaborate  process  of  discussion.  Perhaps 
most  Biblical  texts  are  best  adapted  to  this  form.  Revela- 
tion does  not  come  in  propositional  form.  The  Bible 
is  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  work  of  teaching  by  sug- 
gestion. The  larger  number  of  preachers  in  our  day,  who 
are  known  as  suggestive  preachers,  choose  the  rhetori- 
cal form.  On  the  other  hand  the  logical  form  readily 
lends  itself  to  the  doctrinal  or  elaborately  and  closely 
didactic  type  of  preaching,  and  especially  to  such  sub- 
jects as  deal  with  theological  difficulties  that  must  be 
cleaned  up. 

It  follows  that  the  rhetorical  form  is  adapted  to  sermons 
that  seek  popular  impression.  This  because  they  deal  con- 
cretely and  suggestively  with  the  truth.  But  much  depends 
upon  the  preacher.  The  preaching  of  Dr.  Bushnell  illus- 
trates the  possibility  of  discussing  propositional  themes  in 
popular  form.  His  themes  are  generally  thrown  into  the 
logical  form,  and  yet  the  discussion  is  highly  attractive. 
This  because  he  w^as  a  rhetorician  as  well  as  logician.  Most 
preaching  of  this  sort,  however,  as  illustrated  by  the  preach- 
ing of  New  England,  has  been  relatively  deficient  in  popular 
quality.        Even    the    preaching    of    Bushnell    would    be    re- 


312  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

garded  in  our  day  as  too  solid  and  elaborate  for  the  aver- 
age audience. 

The  rhetorical  form  in  unskillful  hands  may  involve  it- 
self in  diffusiveness  and  inefifectiveness  of  treatment.  This 
because  it  is  wide-ranging.  Reversely,  the  logical  form  by 
limiting  surface  or  lateral  range  may  force  the  preacher 
inward  and  downward  and  so  result  in  a  more  incisive 
and  intensive  and  effective  treatment.  He  who  is  forced 
to  dig  within  a  limited  range  for  what  he  gets  is  likely  to 
work  the  more  intensely. 

There  is  a  large  number  of  passages  that  readily  suggest 
the  exact  rhetorical  form  demanded.  Some  of  them  are 
fragments  or  incomplete  grammatical  sentences :  e.  g.,  Luke 
10:42,  The  one  thing  needful.  2  Pet.  i:ii,  The  abundant 
entrance.  John  20:  11,  12,  Angels  of  hope  at  the  tomb  of 
the  risen  Lord.  I  John  3:  2,  The  hidden  Glory  of  the  Sons 
of  God.  Eph.  3:  8,  Small  saints  or  spiritual  dwarfage.  Acts 
18:  15,  The  courage  of  Thankfulness.  2  Tim.  4:  7,  The  Good 
Fight.  From  such  texts  one  would  hardly  think  of  de- 
veloping  an    elaborate   propositional   discussion. 

The  two  forms  are  often  combined  and  with  good  eflFect. 
Dr.  Bushnell  often  does  this.  It  is  in  fact  one  of  his  hom- 
iletic  peculiarities,  c.  g.,  Job  32:  8.  "But  there  is  a  spirit 
in  man,  etc."  Theme ;  "My  subject  is  The  spirit  in  man' 
or  what  is  the  same,  the  fact  that  we  are,  as  being  spirit 
permeable  and  inspirable  by  the  Almighty."  John  6:30,  "Ye 
also  have  seen  me  and  believe  not."  Theme.  "I  propose 
a  discourse  on  the  reason  of  faith,  or  to  show  how  it  is  that 
we,  as  intelligent  beings,  are  called  to  believe  and  how,  as 
sinners,  we  can  in  the  nature  of  things  be  saved  only  by 
faith."  This  combines  a  statement  of  the  general  subject 
with  the  specific  line  of  discussion  and  the  specific  object 
of  the  sermon.  It  suggests  indefinitely  the  general  regiorj 
in  which  we  are  to  travel  and  then  the  particular  road  we 


THE  THEME  313 

are  to  take  in  the  journey  and  it  suggests  also  the  object 
of  the  journey.  It  suggests  the  generic  thought-material 
and  the  particular  use  to  be  made  of  it,  in  the  discussion. 
It  is  as  if  Dr.  Bushnell  would  say  in  the  sermon  on  the  rea- 
son of  faith ;  as  regards  the  general  thought,  the  general 
subject  matter  of  my  discourse,  I  rely  upon  your  intellectual 
interest  as  I  attempt  to  clear  it  up  and  justify  my  theme. 
But  I  assume  that  you  have  a  moral  interest  in  it  as  well. 
I  wish,  therefore,  to  discuss  it  in  such  way  as  will  leave  not 
only  a  mental  impression  of  the  reasonableness  of  the  sub- 
ject, but  I  wish  to  do  it  in  such  way  as  will  leave  as  strong 
a  moral  impression  as  possible.  I  want  to  prove,  with  refer- 
ence to  practical  interests  that  we  as  rational  beings  are 
called  upon  to  believe  and  that  as  sinners  we  must  believe. 
Here  the  rhetorial  form  yields  what  is  known  as  the  "causal 
theme,"  1.  e.,  the  theme  as  containing  the  general  subject, 
which'  is  the  cause  or  the  source  of  the  sermon  and  which 
furnishes  its  material  of  thought,  while  the  logical  form 
yields  what  is  known  as  the  "final  theme,"  i.e.,  the  theme 
as  conditioned  and  shaped  in  its  statement  with  reference 
to  the  final  purpose  of  the  sermon. 

IV.    Qualities  of  Form 

The  literary  form  in  which  the  theme  is  expressed  is 
not  without  importance.  Its  close  connection  with  its 
thought-qualities  or  logical-qualities  renders  it  the  more 
important.  There  are  four  of  such  form-qualities  that  should 
be  considered. 

I.  Precision  of  form.  Many  otherwise  good  preachers  are 
careless  with  respect  to  exactness  of  statement.  An  exactness 
of  statement  corresponding  to  exactness  of  conception  is  what 
is  demanded.  A  statement  may  be  in  exact  English  and  yet 
may  be  inexact  as  related  to  the  theme  and  the  discussion. 
Canon  Mosley  sometimes  fails  here :  e.  g.,  Matt.  5 :  20.    "Ex- 


314  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

cept  your  righteousness  exceed,  etc/'  A  sermon  on  the 
Pharisees.  Theme ;  "With  these  introductory  remarks  I 
come  to  the  subject  of  the  text,  vb.,  the  Gospel  language 
relating  to  the  Pharisees."  This  theme  is  not  accurately 
suggestive  of  the  text  or  of  the  discussion.  It  is  too  large 
for  the  text.  It  would  not  be  an  appropriate  subject  for 
a  sermon  anyway.  It  would  be  unprofitable  for  practical 
purposes.  Who  would  venture  to  devote  an  entire  sermon 
to  an  exposition  of  Scripture  passages  relating  to  the 
Pharisees?  Canon  Alozley  certainly  does  not  venture  to  do 
it.  This  is  not  the  subject  discussed.  It  is  rather  some 
characteristics  of  the  Pharisees.  Some  of  these  character- 
istics are  suggested  by  some  of  the  declarations  of  the 
Gospels,  but  the  Gospel  language  about  them  is  a  very  un- 
important factor  in  the  discussion.  The  sermon  is  in  fact 
a  skillful  analysis  of  Pharisaic  character.  The  terms  of  the 
theme,  therefore,  do  not  accurately  state  the  character 
of  the  discussion  and  a  certain  confusion  is  introduced  at 
just  that  point  when  clearness  and  exactness  are  de- 
manded. The  statement  may  be  grammatically  exact,  but 
it  is  not  logically  exact.  It  is  not  an  exactness  of  state- 
ment that  corresponds  to  exactness  of  conception.  If  a 
preacher  aims,  as  every  effective  preacher  will,  to  get  hold  of 
one  clear,  definite  idea,  or  to  let  it  get  hold  of  him,  and 
to  set  it  forth  with  all  possible  clearness  and  distinctness, 
his  theme  is  pretty  likely  to  be  definite  and  the  statement 
of  it  will  have  an  exactness  corresponding  to  this  definite- 
ness.  Division  of  the  elements  of  the  theme  in  connec- 
tion with  its  statement  promotes  definiteness  and 
precision,  for  the  topics  must  be  clearly  justified  by  the  theme 
at  the  outset,  e.  g.,  a  sermon  by  Prof.  George  Shepard  from 
John  1:4,*  "And  the  word  was  made  flesh,"  etc.  Theme:  "I 
shall  touch  in  a  rapid,  discursive  way  some  of  the  items  that 

*  Sermon   XX. 


THE  THEME  315 

go  to  make  up  the  completeness,  the  infinity  of  the  glory 
of  Christ  —  greatness  —  mystery  —  condescension  —  love  — 
wealth  —  power  —  achievement."  These  "items"  are  topics 
of  the  theme,  and  their  statement  promotes  exactness,  A 
combination  of  the  rhetorical  and  logical  forms  also 
promotes  exactness,  as  illustrated  by  Dr.  Bushnell's 
preaching. 

2.  Simphcity  or  unelaborateness  of  form,  i.  e.,  gram- 
matical simplicity.  The  rhetorical  form  is  likely  to  be  the  sim- 
pler, although  not  as  of  course.  The  logical  form,  however, 
as  being  propositional,  demanding  exceptional  exactness  and 
calling  for  thorough  discussion,  is  likely  to  be  fuller  and 
more  elaborate.  But  here  too  simplicity  of  statement  is 
desirable.  Non-technical  concrete  language  is  simple,  and 
such  may  well  be  the  language  of  the  theme.  Thus  we  find 
it  in  preachers  like  Bishop  Brooks,  e.  g.,  the  sermon  whose 
title  is  "The  man  with  one  talent."  Theme;  "Let  us  speak 
today  about  the  one  talented  men,  the  men  who  are  crushed 
and  enfeebled  by  a  sense  of  their  own  insignificance."  This 
is  not  a  concise  statement,  nor  rhetorically  climacteric 
("crusJied  and  enfeebled" !) ,  but  it  is  like  most  of  the  preacher's 
statements,  straightforward  and  business-like,  although  they 
are  sometimes  needlessly  diffuse  and  complex  and  once 
in  a  while  careless. 

3.  Compactness  is  a  quality  that  promotes  strength  and 
possibly  vividness  of  impression.  Short  themes,  like  short 
texts,  are  striking.  Long,  elaborate  statements  may  be 
complicated  and  obscure  and  so  unimpressive,  e.  g.,  Bishop 
Huntington's  sermon  from  Rev.  2:  17.*  Theme;  "Let  us 
divide  and  state  in  their  order  the  principal  points  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  which  seem  to  start  for  our  practical  instruction 
and  encouragement  out  of  this  mystical  promise  of  the 
Apocalypse."     This   is   needlessly   dififuse.     Why   not   some 

*  Christian  Believing  and  Living,  Sermon  XIV  page  260. 


3i6  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

concise  suggestion  like  this:  Let  us  consider  some  of  the 
lessons  from  the  mystical  stone.  The  best  preachers  often 
fail  here.  Even  that  master  of  compact  style,  Prof.  George 
Shepard:  e.  g.,  Luke  ii  41.  "Give  alms,  etc."*  A  missionary 
sermon  on  giving.  Title ;  "The  Moral  Discipline  of  Giving." 
Theme;  'T  come  to  this,  then  as  the  main  topic  of  my 
discussion;  giving  of  what  God  may  have  given  us,  as  a 
means  of  disciplining,  purifying,  elevating  the  character. 
And  I  might  speak  of  this  discipline  as  both  retrospective 
and  prospective."  This  is  too  diffuse  and  elaborate.  The  title 
is  a  good  theme. 

4.  Gracefulness  is  a  rhetorical  quality  in  the  statement  of 
the  theme,  little  cultivated  by  American  preachers,  but  in 
which  German  preachers  are  proficient.  Kreummacher's 
theme,  "The  Love  that  is  above  mother  Love,"  will  illus- 
trate this.  Preachers  of  the  Latin  Church,  c.  g.,  Leo  the 
Great,  were  accustomed  to  give  their  themes  rhythmically. 
Claus  Harms,  the  popular  German  preacher,  followed  this 
custom  and  the  German,  like  the  Latin  assonance,  is  well 
fitted  for  graceful  impression.  English  preachers,  like  Wil- 
liam Jay  and  earlier  the  Puritan  preachers,  cultivated  this. 
We  find  a  trace  of  it  in  Mr.  Spurgeon,  e.  g.,  a  sermon  heard 
by  the  writer  from  Rev.  1:18,  "I  am  he  that  liveth  and  was 
dead,  etc."  Theme;  "The  Power  of  the  Keys  and  the  Key 
of  the  Power."  Figurative  texts  or  texts  used  figuratively 
are  conducive  to  felicity  of  statement,  e.g.,  John  19:41, 
"Now,  in  the  place  where  he  was  crucified  there  was  a 
garden  and  in  the  garden  a  tomb,  etc."  Theme;  "The  Grave 
in  the  Garden  of  Life."  Such  statements  of  course  will  call  for 
a  corresponding  frlicity  of  style  in  the  treatment  of  the 
theme.  Sensational  preachers  overwork  felicity  and  it  be- 
comes grotesque,  e.  g.,  the  late  Dr.  Talmadge,  and  Rowland 
Hill  of  Surrey  Chapel,  London.     But   it  is  as  bad  to  err 

*  Sermon  XI,  page  122, 


THE  THEME  31? 

on  the  side  of  the  prosiac  dullness  and  common  place  as 
on  that  of  extravagance  and  grotesqueness.  A  man  of 
literary  taste  and  rhetorical  skill  will  cultivate  felicity  of 
statement.  It  is  an  important  element  in  suggestive 
preaching. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    OUTLINE 

I.  Its  Significance 
The  outline  is  the  expansion  of  the  theme  into  its  dif- 
ferent centres  or  groups  of  thought.  It  is  the  process  by 
which  the  theme  as  the  germ  of  the  sermon  begins  to  grow 
and  develop.  As  a  result  of  this  process  every  part  should 
find  its  proper  place  in  the  organism  of  the  sermon,  as  in 
the  development  of  any  organism  every  part  should  find 
the  place  that  belongs  to  it.  Here  we  have  the  beginning  of 
structural  form.  Without  it,  we  have  only  a  germ  or  a 
structureless  mass  of  homiletic  protoplasm.  Changing  the 
figure,  and,  after  the  manner  of  the  classical  rhetoricians, 
using  a  military  term,  the  division  is  a  part  of  the  dis- 
position (dispositio),  i.  e.,  it  belongs  to  the  scheme  or  dis- 
tribution of  parts.  It  suggests  an  arrangement  of  troops 
in  line  of  battle.  The  success  of  the  battle  is  conditioned 
largely  by  the  skillful  arrangement  of  forces,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  preaching  is  conditioned  in  part  by  the  skillful  ar- 
rangement of  the  elements  of  the  subject.  It  is  like  the 
skill  of  a  general  in  handling  his  troops,  each  man  being  put 
where  he  belongs  and  doing  his  duty  at  his  post.  We  use 
a  variety  of  terms  to  designate  the  partition  or  division 
of  the  elements  of  the  theme.  It  is  the  "plan"  of  the  ser- 
mon, i.  e.,  the  arrangement  of  the  different  groups  or  centres 
of  thought  contained  in  the  theme,  in  accordance  with  some 
scheme  of  arrangement  so  as  to  shape  the  discussion  into 
a  complete  whole,  as  we  shape  a  building  into  architectural 


THE  OUTLINE  319 

unity  in  accordance  with  an  architectural  plan.     We  speak, 
therefore,  of  the  architecture  of  the  sermon. 

It  is  the  "scheme,"  or  varying  the  thought  to  make  the 
notion  of  unity  and  order  the  more  emphatic,  it  is  the  "skele- 
ton," suggesting  an  imitation  of  nature's  most  symmetrical 
work.  The  divisions  are  the  "heads"  of  the  sermon.  They 
suggest  the  prominence  with  which  the  groups  of  thought 
should  stand  out  to  the  hearer's  apprehension  in  the  line 
of  development.  They  are  those  chief  centres  of  thought, 
in  the  content  of  the  sermon,  that  contain  all  subordinate 
elements  and,  as  it  were,  stand  above  them  as  the  head  above 
the  body. 

With  like  emphasis  we  call  them  "points"  using  nature's 
definitiveness  of  outline  to  suggest  the  definiteness  of  out- 
line that  should  mark  the  progress  of  the  development  of 
the  sermon  or  that  should  characterize  its  structural  form, 
i.  e.,  they  are  prominent  features  of  the  subject  that  jut  out 
into  view  like  salient  points  to  mark  the  line  or  course  of 
thought.  We  might  use  Coleridge's  term  and  call  them 
"landing  places."  The  discussion  is  a  stream  of  thought. 
The  divisions  or  "heads"  are  islands  in  the  stream.  The 
preacher  launches  out  from  his  point  of  departure  and  heads 
toward  these  different  landing-places  in  his  course,  passing 
from  one  to  another,  till  the  last  is  reached  and  the  course  is 
ended.  They  are  "pauses,"  they  are  "rests"  that  mark 
progress.  They  are  "mile-stones"  that  mark  the  stages 
of  the  journey.  All  these  terms  in  their  essential  significance 
suggest  the  nature  of  the  work  and  by  their  variety  per- 
haps suggest  its  importance.  Orderly  method  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  sermon  is  the  prevaihng  suggestion,  a 
method  that  conforms  to  the  relations  of  thought  and  to  the 
laws  of  the  soul's  action.  With  this  is  included  the  notions 
of  unity  and  progress  in  the  discussion.  These  qualities 
are  necessary  not  only  to  clearness  but  are  also  conducive 


320  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

even   to   force   and   gracefulness   as   elements   of   rhetorical 
efTectiveness  in  the  discussion. 

H.     The  Methods  of  Outline 

There  are  two  chief  methods  of  distributing  the  elements 
of  the  text  or  the  theme,  which  have  already  been  brought 
to  our  attention.  They  are  the  textual  and  the  topical,  or 
the  analytic  and  the  synthetic,  as  they  are  sometimes  called. 
The  former  analyzes  the  elements  of  the  text  and  distributes 
them  as  textual  topics  in  the  divisions  of  the  sermon.  The 
latter  secures  a  theme  from  the  text  by  a  synthesis  of  its 
elements,  or  by  a  synthesis  of  thoughts  suggested  by  it,  but 
which  may  have  a  relative  independence  of  it  and  then  dis- 
tributes these  elements  under  certain  topics  or  rubrics  of 
thought.  Thus  the  textual  method  deals  directly  with  the 
elements  of  the  text  and  distributes  them  and  them  only  as 
topics  throughout  the  sermon.  The  topical  method  deals 
indirectly  with  the  text  and  directly  with  the  theme,  dis- 
tributing its  elements  as  topics  in  relative  independence  of 
the  text.  The  two  methods  result  in  two  very  different  types 
of  preaching.  Success  in  both  methods  presupposes  train- 
ing in  them. 

Let  us  examine  them. 

I.  With  respect  to  the  textual  method,  a  few  general  sug- 
gestions relative  to  its  use  may  be  of  value. 

The  character  of  the  text  is  the  first  regulative  considera- 
tion. A  passage  that  is  complex  in  its  content  of  thought 
lends  itself  readily  to  the  textual  method.  The  passage  that 
is  short  and  simple  and  closely  unified  in  its  content  of 
thought  is  better  adapted  to  topical  treatment. 

The  textual  method  is  adapted  to  the  simpler  subjects 
and  to  the  relatively  uninstructed  and  uncultured  class  of 
hearers.  It  is  a  simple  method  of  preaching,  dealing,  as 
it    does,    in    an    unartistic   way,    with    the    explanation    and 


THE  OUTLINE  321 

applications  of  the  elements  of  the  text  and  requires  chiefly 
faciUty  in  popular  exposition  and  practical  suggestion.  The 
topical  method  is  adapted  to  the  weightier  subjects,  to  the 
more  elaborate  discussion  and  to  the  more  cultivated  audi- 
ence.   It  exacts  upon  the  artistic  skill  of  the  preacher. 

It  is  a  method  that  is  easily  mastered.  It  is,  therefore, 
of  value  to  a  hard-worked  preacher  whose  productive  powers 
are  heavily  taxed.  The  topical  sermon  reacts  more  severely 
upon  the  inventive  powers  and  success  in  it  is  the  more 
difficult. 

It  is  an  important  consideration  that  it  is  the  Bibhcal 
method  distinctively.  The  better  modern  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  invites  the  preacher  to  cultivate  it.  The  topical  method 
admits,  even  demands,  wider  range,  and  it  may  be  a  possi- 
ble range  widely  remote  from  the  Biblical  field  of  thought. 
In  many  cases  it  proves  itself  to  be  a  very  helpful  and  sug- 
gestive method  of  practical  preaching.  The  thought  basis 
lies  immediately  before  the  preacher  and  stimulates  his  in- 
ventive powers.  The  topical  sermon  may  be  the  more 
educative  type  of  sermon,  but,  as  presupposing  the  more 
weighty  and  difficult  class  of  subjects,  more  heavily  taxes 
the  preacher's  inventive  power. 

The  textual  method  may  be  easily  overworked,  in  de- 
ducing thought  from  the  text  by  remote  processes  of  sug- 
gestion. The  preacher  may  easily  impose  upon  the  text, 
or  smuggle  into  it,  what  does  not  belong  to  it.  There  may 
be  a  temptation  to  over-press  every  clause  of  the  text  and 
as  a  result  the  whole  sermon  may  suggest  the  strain  of  un- 
reality. In  the  topical  sermon  the  chief  point  of  pressure 
upon  the  text  where  it  may  be  subjected  to  an  overstrain, 
is  in  deducing  the  theme  from  it. 

A  lack  of  unity  of  thought  is  one  of  the  possible,  and 
easily  possible,  infelicities  of  the  textual  method.  But  the 
formulation  of  a  theme  that  will  cover  the  thought  content  of 


322  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

the  text  will  obviate  this.     The  topical-textual  or  synthetic- 
analytic  is  the  only  satisfactory  textual  method. 

The  textual  division  may  attach  itself  to  the  stress-words 
or  to  the  stress-thought  of  the  passage.  Passages  whose 
chief  words  are  pregnant  with  meaning  and  are  so  related 
as  to  secure  unity  of  thought  may  become  the  basis  of  a 
successful  verbal  development,  e.g.,  Romans  8:28,  "And 
we  know  that  to  them  that  love  God  all  things  work  to- 
gether for  good."  Theme:  What  we  may  know  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  God.  I.  That  God  is  at  "work"  in  it.  2.  That 
His  activities  work  cooperatively,  "together."  3.  That  they 
work  teleologically,  work  "for"  something.  4.  That  they 
work  beneficently,  or  towards  the  "good."  5.  That  they 
work  conditionally  toward  this  beneficence,  "to  them  that 
love  God."  Micah  6:8,  "And  what  does  the  Lord  require 
of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,"  etc.  Theme:  The  Summary  of 
divine  requisitions,  i.  Justice.  2.  Philanthrophy.  3. 
Piety.  James  5:16  (b),  "The  supplication  of  a  righteous 
man  availcth  much  in  its  zvorking.  Theme;  Prevailing  Prayer. 
I.  The  type  of  prayer — the  cry  of  human  want.  2.  Its 
ethical  quality.  3.  The  sphere  of  its  prevailing  efficacy. 
It  "avails"  to  accomplish  objective  results.  4.  Its  measure 
and  variety — "avails  much."  5.  The  subjective  conditions, 
because  it  energizes  within.  The  objection  against  this 
method  of  treating  texts  is  that  it  is  likely  to  degenerate 
into  allegory,  artificiality  and  lack  of  unity.  The  textual 
division  that  attaches  itself  to  the  stress-thoughts  of  the  pas- 
sage may  be  identical  with  and  not  dififerentiable  from  the 
topical  method,  c.  g.,  Rev.  3:  20,  "Behold  I  stand  at  the  door 
and  knock,"  etc.,  may  be  treated  according  to  the  supple- 
mental textual  method,  in  which,  as  not  infrequently  in 
Robertson's  preaching,  topics  from  without  may  be  combined 
with  topics  furnished  by  the  text.  2  Cor.  5 :  14,  "For  the  love 
of  Christ  constraineth  us,"  may  be  treated  according  to  the 


THE  OUTLINE  323 

expansive  textual  method,  i.  e.,  by  educing-  the  elements  of 
thought  involved  in  the  constraint  of  Christ's  love.  i.  A 
rational  constraint.  2.  A  moral  constraint,  etc.  John  6: 
68,  "Simon  Peter  answered  him:  To  whom  shall  we  go," 
etc.,  may  be  treated  according  to  what  may  be  called  the 
implicative  textual  method,  i.  e.,  by  educing  the  implications 
of  the  text.  i.  We  must  in  religion  go  somewhere,  must 
get  beyond  ourselves.  2.  Must  appeal  to  a  living  personal 
being.  3.  It  is  to  Christ  or  no  one,  etc.  A  passage  like 
Acts  16:30,  "What  must  I  do  to  be  saved,"  may  be  treated 
according  to  the  grammatical  textual  method,  following 
the  subject,  predicate  and  object,  i.  The  personal  search. 
2.     The  practical  method.    3.     The  object  sought. 

2.  As  to  the  topical  method,  there  are  two  classes  that 
should  be  examined.  One  deals  immediately  and  directly 
with  the  main  thought  of  the  theme  and  discusses  it  with 
reference  to  the  work  of  instruction.  The  other  deals  in- 
directly with  the  thought  of  the  theme  and  uses  it  in  the 
way  of  application  and  with  reference  to  practical  interests. 
One  lays  stress  upon  the  subject  and  the  other  upon  the 
object  of  the  sermon.  The  former,  as  being  expository 
of  the  thought  of  the  theme  and  aiming  at  instruction,  may 
be  called  the  didactic  topical  method,  and  the  latter,  as  de- 
ducing inferences  from  the  theme  for  practical  use,  may  be 
called  the  applicatory  topical  method. 

(i)  In  the  didactic  plan  or  division  of  the  theme,  the 
immediate  object  is  to  bring  out  the  different  groups  of 
thought  that  lie  in  the  theme  with  reference  to  the  work 
of  teaching.  The  subject  is  the  important  matter  and  must 
be  discussed  on  the  basis  of  its  importance  as  a  subject.  The 
application  may  be  made  in  connection  with  the  discussion, 
or  subsequently  in  the  conclusion.  But  whenever  and 
wherever  made,  it  is  based  upon  the  discussion,  and  is  in 
a  way  subordinate  to  it.    The  immediate  thing  is  to  get  the 


324  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

elements  of  the  subject  before  the  hearer  in  such  way  as 
to  increase  or  clarify  or  rectify  his  knowledge  of  it.  Most 
topical  sermons  of  the  weightier  sort  belong  to  this  class. 
Such  was  the  old  New  England  topical  sermon.  Its  ob- 
ject was  indoctrination,  and  it  was  shaped  with  reference  to 
this  end.  Didactic  methods  vary.  Those  current  in  our  day 
differ  from  those  of  a  previous  period.  But  whatever  the 
method,  the  aim  of  the  didactic  sermon  is  the  same.  It 
is  edification  by  increase,  or  clarification  or  correction  of 
knowledge.  So  long  as  due  attention  is  given  to  the  moral 
and  religious  aim  of  the  sermon,  the  didactic  method  of 
handling  its  material  is  very  important.  This  is  pastoral 
preaching  by  preeminence. 

(2)  In  the  applicatory  method,  the  material  of  the  sub- 
ject is  handled  in  a  practical  and  suggestive  manner,  and 
with  reference  primarily  to  moral  and  religious  incentive. 
It  takes  up  at  once  the  bearings  of  the  subject  upon  practical 
interests.  It  may  be  in  the  form  of  inferences  that  have 
a  bearing  upon  men's  beliefs,  for  truth  may  have  a  practi- 
cal bearing  upon  one's  opinions,  or  it  may  have  a  practical 
bearing  upon  the  formation  of  their  characters  or  upon  their 
general  conduct  or  upon  some  specific  and  immediate  line 
of  action.  It  generally  deals  with  inferential  thoughts  of 
a  suggestive,  quickening  character,  e.  g.,  Matt.  20:28,  "Even 
as  the  Son  of  man  came,  not  to  be  ministered  unto,"  etc. 
The  subject  suggested  here  is  familiar  and  does  not  call  for 
elaborate  didactic  treatment.  It  is  better  to  apply  the  sub- 
ject by  deducing  inferential  thoughts  from  it.  i.  The 
subject  suggests  the  way  in  which  Christ  established  his 
ascendency  over  men.  2.  It  suggests  our  supreme  want. 
3.  It  suggests  our  supreme  life  task.  This  method  need 
not  fail  in  discussion.  The  applications  themselves  are  dis- 
cussed. But  it  is  discussion  by  the  process  of  indirection.  It 
may  rescue  the   sermon  from  unfruitful  discussion  or  un- 


THE  OUTLINE  325 

profitable  commonplace.  Themes  that  demand  thorough 
explication  and  discussion  call  for  the  didactic  method. 
The  simpler,  the  more  commonplace,  the  more  practical, 
the  more  difficult  perhaps,  and  I  will  add  the  more  offensive, 
subjects  may  best  be  handled  by  the  applicatory  method. 
If  the  preacher  seeks  increase  of  moral  and  spiritual  im- 
pulse he  will  naturally  choose  this  method.  No  one  would 
wish  an  elaborate,  didactic  discussion  of  Revelation  3:20. 
A  passage  like  Gal.  i:  8,  "But  though  we  or  an  angel  from 
heaven,"  etc.,  would  be  difficult  to  treat  by  the  direct  didactic 
method.  It  is  offensive  and  should  be  treated  by  indirec- 
tion, e.  g.,  Theme:  Paul's  estimate  of  his  Gospel,  i.  It 
suggests  the  value  of  positive  beliefs.  2.  The  value  of 
hedging  belief  with  strong  conviction.  3.  The  value  of 
correct  beliefs.  4.  Justification  of  indignation  against  the 
teaching  and  teachers  of  error.  These  topics  are  infer- 
ential and  applicatory  and  on  the  whole,  taken  together  may 
not  be  offensive. 

An  extreme  of  the  didactic  method  is  found  in  the  scholas- 
tic type  of  preaching.  An  extreme  of  the  applicatory  may 
be  found  in  some  classes  of  the  evangelistic  type  of  preaching. 
In  the  one  case  we  have  an  excess  of  discussion  without 
suffiicient  practical  use.  In  the  other  we  have  an  excess  of 
application  without  the  support  of  discussion.  It  is  better 
on  the  whole  perhaps  not  to  divorce  them.  The  truth,  v/hen 
necessary,  should  be  adequately  interpreted  to  the  mind, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  practical  needs  of  the  hearer  should 
not  be  forgotten.  Justice  to  the  subject  and  at  the  same 
time  justice  to  the  object  should  be  the  aim.  And  yet  it 
may  be  necessary  sometimes  to  separate  them.  A  strictly 
doctrinal  and  strictly  evangelistic  sermon  are  sometimes 
necessary.  In  ordinary  pastoral  preaching,  however,  a  hard 
and  fast  line  between  discussion  and  application  is  hardly 
necessary  or  desirable. 


326  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

ni.     The  Necessity  of  Outline 

No  elaboration  of  this  topic  is  called  for.  There  are  but 
two  suggestions. 

I.  There  can  be  no  sermon  without  outline,  more  or  less 
distinct.  The  textual  sermon  has,  of  course,  the  divisions 
of  the  text.  But  how  about  the  topical  sermon?  J\lust 
it  have  divisions  as  well?  I  repeat  no  sermon  is  possible  with- 
out division.  Why?  Let  us  see.  One  has  a  theme.  No  theme, 
no  sermon,  but  homily.  It  may  be  hidden  or  at  the  surface, 
implicit  or  explicit,  held  in  solution  or  emergent  in  form. 
But  it  is  there,  and  it  is  one.  And  it  contains  groups  of 
subordinate  thought.  They  are  all  wrapped  up  there  in  the 
theme.  The  theme  is  capable  of  formulation  in  some  sort 
of  proposition  or  affirmation  or  statement,  and  about  it  not 
one  thing  but  many  complex  things  may  be  said.  Now, 
what  will  one  do?  Use  or  apply  the  subject,  perhaps?  Very 
well.  This  involves  partition  or  division  into  different  as- 
pects or  phases  of  what  is  to  be  used  or  applied.  One  does 
not  use  or  apply  the  subject  by  saying*  one  thing  over  and 
over  again  in  the  same  way  in  which  it  has  been  said  in  the 
theme.  There  is  no  development  of  the  subject  in  this. 
There  is  no  bringing  out  of  the  complexities  of  thought  that 
are  hidden  in  the  theme.  The  theme  is  applied  only  when 
different  applicatory  aspects  of  it  are  brought  out.  But  per- 
haps one  will  discuss  rather  than  apply  the  subject?  It 
may  be  done  variously.  No  matter  how.  One  will  dis-cuss 
it,  i.  c,  etymologically  one  will  shake  it  asunder  into  its 
elements,  one  will  break  up  that  complex  mass,  the  theme, 
into  its  constituent  elements.  To  discuss  a  subject  is  to 
disintegrate  it,  and  to  examine,  reflect  upon  and  use  the 
parts  of  which  it  is  composed.  Otherwise  one  docs  not 
discuss  it,  he  fools  with  it.  Now,  here  is  division.  It  is  a 
manifest  necessity.  The  only  question  is;  what  sort  of  divi- 
sion?     Or  the  further  question:  How  definite  and 'manifest 


THE  OUTLINE  327 

shall  it  be?  Some  sort  there  must  be.  One  must  know 
those  hidden — those  possible  groups  of  thought  that  lie 
there,  else  one  does  not  know  his  subject.  What  can  one 
do  with  it  without  knowing  something  about  it?  To  know 
and  handle  the  theme,  then  involves  division.  Now,  it  needs 
no  argument,  or  should  need  none,  that  in  general  this 
division  process  should  in  some  way  be  made  apparent, 
at  least  sufficiently  so  for  the  accomphshment  of  one's  pur- 
pose. The  preacher  must  have  some  scheme  of  thought  in 
mind,  and  the  audience  ought  to  have  the  avail  of  it,  if  the 
preacher  will  reasonably  expect  to  do  anything  for  them. 

2.  The  character  of  the  sermon,  as  determined  by  its  sub- 
ject and  object,  conditions  the  kind  of  divisions,  as  well  as 
their  number  and  their  definiteness  of  outline.  Let  us  look 
then  at  the  two  types  of  sermon  above  referred  to  as  related 
to  this  question. 

As  regards  the  didactic  sermon,  the  demand  is,  of  course, 
that  it  be  instructive.  The  audience,  therefore,  should  be  able 
to  take  in  and  take  away  the  whole  sermon,  to  take  it  not 
simply  as  a  whole  but  in  its  parts  and  relations  and  thus  in 
fact  be  the  better  able  tO'  retain  it  as  a  whole.  The  success 
of  the  sermon  depends  on  this,  not  on  a  merely  fragmentary 
impression.  The  subject  should  stand  out  clearly  in  outhne 
in  the  mind  of  the  preacher  and  this  clearness  of  outline 
should  appear  in  his  discussion.  The  sort  of  topics  that  are 
adapted  to  the  work  of  teaching  should  be  chosen,  or  such 
proofs  as  will  carry  his  argument  if  it  be  an  argumentative 
discourse.  They  will  be  arranged  clearly  and  methodically, 
so  that  they  may  be  followed  easily.  The  divisions  will  be, 
therefore,  somewhat  prominent  and  obtrusive.  The  theme 
will  be  broken  up  into  its  parts,  each  part  will  be  examined 
by  itself,  and  in  its  relations,  and  the  whole  subject  as  thus 
analyzed,  will  be  presented  in  a  closely  organized  manner. 
Not  that  the  divisions  must  be  mathematically  formal.     They 


328  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

certainly  should  not  run  on  in  a  formal  manner,  each 
topic  in  succession  out  of  its  predecessor,  rather  than  directly 
out  of  the  theme,  as  the  scholastic  sermon  did,  till  the 
preacher  had  piled  together  an  interminable  mass  of  bulky 
fragments,  a  hundred  or  more,  as  we  find  even  in  preachers 
like  Baxter  and  other  Puritan  preachers.  But  there  will 
be  a  clearly  outlined  discussion  that  will  do  the  work  of 
discussion.  The  word  "skeleton"  has  done  duty  in  homi- 
letics  and  it  has  frightened  a  good  many  modern  preachers. 
But  one  might  say  a  worse  thing  about  a  sermon  than  that 
it  has  a  good  skeleton,  as  one  might  say  a  worse  thing 
about  the  human  body  than  that  it  has  a  symmetrical  form. 
It  means  thai  it  is  rationally  and,  in  fact,  aesthetically  or- 
ganized and  that  every  one  can  see  that  it  is.  It  does  not 
mean  simply  that  it  is  fleshless  and  lifeless.  A  didactic  ser- 
mon, with  a  clear  outline,  need  not  be  a  skeleton  in  the  ob- 
jectionable sense  that  is  is  lifeless.  A  live  sermon,  just 
because  it  is  such,  demands  structural  quality,  as  any  liv- 
ing organism  of  high  grade  demands  it,  demands  it  because 
•it  is  an  organism  of  high  grade.  The  higher  the  organism, 
the  more  intricate  and  elaborate  not  only  but  the  more 
manifest  its  structure.  The  lower  the  organism,  the  less 
manifest  its  structure.  We  speak  of  the  "body"  of  the  ser- 
mon. The  name  suggests  a  structure  manifest  enough  to 
support  the  name.  A  structureless  man  of  unorganized 
homiletic  protoplasm  has  no  developed  body.  We  know 
the  body  of  an  organism  from  its  parts. 

(2)  But  with  respect  to  the  applicative  or  more  practical 
sermon  the  chief  object  is  impression,  not  teaching.  Such 
impression  is  not  wholly  dependent  on  teaching.  It  is  not 
a  strong,  complete  mental  conquest,  but  a  strong,  urgent, 
moral  and  emotional  incentive,  or  succession  of  incentives 
that  is  sought.  The  object  is  to  carry  into  the  mind  one 
simple,  main  thought,  variously  illustrated  in  such  a  way  as 


THE  OUTLINE  329 

will  leave  impressions  that  will  abide  and  do  their  work. 
The  preaching  of  Dr.  Alexander  McKenzie  of  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  illustrates  this  method.  In  sermons  of  this  sort  it 
is  not  necessary  to  develop  very  fully  the  different  groups 
of  thought  that  lie  in  the  theme,  and  lay  them  all  out  be- 
fore the  hearer  in  clear  outline.  It  will  only  be  necessary 
to  take  the  main  thought  of  the  subject,  which  is  simple, 
and  illustrate  and  apply  it  in  a  variety  of  ways,  somewhat 
as  Dr.  Chalmers  did,  although  his  subjects  were  not  sim- 
ple, somewhat  as  Bishop  Brooks  did,  and  as  Dr.  Bushnell 
never  did.  In  this  way  there  will,  of  course,  be  division, 
for  to  illustrate  and  apply  a  subject  in  any  way,  no  matter 
how  concretely,  is  in  a  sort  to  discuss  it,  for  phases  of 
the  illustrated  subject  are  brought  out  in  succession.  The 
leading  thought  will  always  be  presented  in  different  as- 
pects. But  such  discussion  will  be  relatively  simple  in  the 
material  and  formal  sense.  It  will  not  be  argumentative  or 
elaborately  didactic.  It  may  have  but  little  of  the  formal, 
structural  quality.  Such  structure  as  it  may  have  will  be  that 
of  the  simpler  class  of  organisms,  in  which  the  parts  are 
not  obtrusively  manifest.  We  have  here  more  of  the 
synthetic  process,  as  in  the  didactic  sermon  we  have  more 
of  the  analytic  process.  Here  we  may  have  more  of  the  in- 
ductive, as  there  more  of  the  deductive  process. 

IV.  The  Topics  or  Categories  of  the  Outline 
The  word  topic  is  a  Greek  rhetorical  term  in  use  before 
the  time  of  Aristotle,  but  more  fully  developed  by  him.  It 
means  primarily  the  ''place''  where  arguments  or  proofs 
are  found  for  the  use  of  the  rhetorician  and  orator.  For 
classical  rhetoric  and  oratory  dealt  mostly  with  a  type  of 
speech  in  which  arguments  were  used,  such  arguments  as 
are  appropriate  to  the  sphere  of  probable  as  distinguished 
from  demonstrative  evidence,  i.  e.,  popular  rhetorical  argu- 


330  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

merits  as  distinguished  from  dialectical  or  philosophical 
arguments.  The  idea  suggested  is  that  arguments  in  con- 
nection with  the  subject,  do  not  at  once  readily  suggest  them- 
selves. They  need  to  be  hunted  up.  There  is  need  of  a 
"place"  where  they  may  be  stored  and  found  when  demanded. 
Hence  the  rhetorical  term  "invention"  which  refers  both 
to  the  discovery  of  the  material  of  thought  and  to  the 
methods  of  handling  the  material  of  thought.  The  study 
of  classical  rhetoric,  therefore,  was  designed  as  an  aid  to 
public  speakers  in  finding  material  and  method  for  the  de- 
velopment of  their  spteches.  The  orator's  arguments  or 
possible  methods  of  treating  his  subject  were  stored  up, 
1.  c,  were  classified  and,  as  it  were,  gathered  into  a  treasure 
house  and  there  stood  ready  for  use  in  this  classified  con- 
dition when  sought. 

Then  by  metonymy  the  word  was  applied  to  the  argu- 
ments themselves.  These  arguments  were  known  as  the 
commonplaces  or  special  places  of  men's  reasoning,  i.  e.,  the 
general  or  special  methods  of  handling  subjects  discussed, 
Aristotle  discusses  twenty-eight  of  these  general  topics  or 
methods  of  argument.  The  Latin  term  "loci  communes" 
refers  to  the  general  method  of  conducting  a  popular  ar- 
gument, /.  c,  methods  that  are  common  to  any  particular 
type  of  public  speech.  In  classical  rhetoric — Greek  and 
Latin  alike — there  were  three  types  of  public  speech,  the 
deliberative,  a  persuasive  type  of  political  oratory,  the  judi- 
cial, a  persuasive  type  of  legal  oratory,  and  tlie  epideictic, 
a  highly  emotional  type  of  eulogistic  oratory.  There  were 
topics  or  methods  of  discussion  especially  adapted  to  each 
of  these  species  of  oratory,  just  as  in  preaching  there  are 
topics  or  methods  of  treatment  that  are  adapted  to  the  didac- 
tic, the  ethical  and  the  evangelistic  types  of  discourse.  The 
word  topic,  then,  as  applied  to  preaching  means  the  methods 
of  handling  the  sermon,  methods  of  introducing  the  subject. 


THE  OUTLINE  331 

methods  of  stating  it,  methods  of  developing  it  and  methods 
of  concluding  it.  As  used  in  our  discussion  it  means  methods 
of  developing  the  theme  or  of  planning  the  sermon.  Topics 
then  are  the  categories  or  classifications  of  thought  used  in 
preaching.  A  study  of  these  classifications  is  a  study  of 
the  principles  of  mental  association  or  of  those  thought- 
relations  that  one  may  follow  in  the  treatment  of  a  subject. 

The  study  has  generally  been  regarded  as  a  valuable  one 
for  a  public  speaker.  The  older  writers  on  homiletics  have 
more  to  say  about  it  than  the  modern.  The  concrete  method 
of  study  is  particularly  valuable,  i.  e.,  an  examination  of 
the  methods  of  different  preachers  in  the  handling  of  their 
themes.  The  methods  they  follow  will  depend  largely  on 
their  mental  bias  and  equipment.  The  preacher  of  a  phil- 
osophical or  logical  habit  of  mind  will  follow  methods  that  the 
man  of  imaginative  or  emotional  or  practical  tendency  will  not 
follow.  There  is  no  better  way  of  learning  the  peculiarities 
of  a  man's  preaching  or  of  getting  at  the  preacher's  lead- 
ing tendencies  than  a  study  of  his  topics,  or  methods  of 
handling  his  subjects.  But  the  study  of  the  methods  them- 
selves independently  of  their  concrete  products  is  of  value. 
I  shall  discuss  this  in  another  connection.  Just  now  I  shall 
simply  direct  attention  to  some  considerations  to  be  taken 
into  account  in  the  choice  of  topics  for  the  plan  of  the  ser- 
mon. 

A  sermon  is  not  good  simply  because  it  has  a  recognized 
plan.  That  depends  on  the  sort  of  plan.  The  character  of 
the  plan  depends  on  the  character  of  the  topics  chosen. 
Note  the  following  considerations. 

I.  The  character  of  the  topics  should  correspond  with 
the  character  of  the  sermon,  i.  c,  with  the  subject  of 
the  sermon  and  with  its  object.  The  choice  should  not 
be  made  capriciously.  There  are  reasons  in  the  nature  of  the 
subject,  and  in  the  proper  object,  of  the  sermon  and  in  the 


332  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

proper  thought-relation  between  the  subject  and  object  why- 
one  should  choose  one  rather  than  another  class  or  group 
of  topics.  Of  course  there  is  great  range  of  possible  choice. 
One  can  not  lay  down  any  hard  and  fast  rule  here.  But  it  is 
evident  enough  that  there  are  topics  that  are  adapted  to 
different  types  of  sermon,  I  will  add  different  types  of  the 
distinctively  Christian  sermon.  There  is  a  large  variety 
of  topics  that  readily  adjust  themselves  to  Christian  themes. 
There  are  ways  of  looking  at  things  that  may  be  called  pre- 
eminently Christian.  There  are  Christian  categories  of 
thought,  Christian  commonplaces  and  special  places.  These 
topics  readily  adjust  themselves  to  different  types  of  ser- 
mons. For  example,  there  are  topics  that  are  peculiarly 
adapted  to  didactic  sermons.  A  very  large  number  of  our 
New  Testament  texts  are  didactic  texts.  They  call  for  in- 
terpretation. Preaching  must  be  largely  expository.  Now 
there  are  didactic  topics  that  fit  these  texts  and  the  subjects 
deduced  from  them.  They  might  be  called  philosophical 
topics.  They  belong  to  the  realm  of  abstract  thought  per- 
haps, although  they  may  be  stated  concretely  or  representa- 
tively. In  discussing  such  subjects  we  are  likely  to  direct 
attention  to  the  nature  of  the  truth  in  hand,  its  fundamental 
principles,  its  characteristics,  its  implications,  its  necessity,  its 
grounds  or  sources,  its  evidences,  the  objections  against  it,  etc. 
In  handling  an  ethical  sermon  we  look  for  topics  that  are 
adapted  to  ethical  impression.  Whatever  touches  the  realm 
of  duty,  of  moral  necessity,  of  moral  privilege,  of  moral  aim 
or  motive,  whatever  touches  the  domain  of  consequences, 
the  realm  of  moral  utility,  of  moral  dignity,  or  grandeur 
or  the  realm  of  moral  conviction,  takes  us  at  once  into  the 
topics  that  are  adapted  to  the  work  of  ethical  inculcation. 
There  are  ethical  topics  that  are  distinctively  Christian, 
and  are  peculiarly  fitted  to  the  work  of  moral  impression  that 
is  characteristically  Christian. 


THE  OUTLINE  333 

In  dealing-  with  the  Hghter  class  of  sermons,  sermons 
in  which  feeUng  and  imagination  abound,  or  of  the  more 
distinctively  practical  character,  we  look  for  topics  that  take 
us  into  the  realm  of  concrete  reality,  the  realm  of  illustra- 
tion, of  example,  of  experience.  But  it  is  the  object,  as 
well  as  the  subject,  that  should  determine  the  topics.  Most 
sermons,  therefore,  call  for  a  combination  of  the  didactic 
and  the  practical  class  of  topics.  Let  me  illustrate  from  the 
two  following  plans  that  admirably  recognize  the  difference 
between  the  didactic  and  the  practical  interest  in  preaching. 
Matt.  13:44.  Theme;  The  Hidden  Treasure.  Didactic  plan. 
I.  The  Nature  of  it.  2.  The  value  of  it.  Here  the  lead- 
ing object  is  an  interpretation  of  the  parable.  In  order 
fully  to  understand  it  we  must  know  the  nature  of  it,  we  must 
understand  what  this  hidden  treasure  is.  But  the  object 
is  not  wholly  didactic.  It  is  partly  practical.  For  this  reason 
the  hearer  should  have  the  value  of  it  set  before  him.  But 
the  value  is  interpreted  as  well  as  inculcated.  Therefore 
even  the  second  topic  is  in  part  didactic.  Practical  plan. 
I.  It  is  so  hidden  that  it  must  be  sought.  2.  It  is  so 
manifest  that  it  may  be  found.  3.  It  is  so  valuable  that 
its  worth  can  not  be  estimated.  4.  Yet  it  is  to  be  so  greatly 
desired  that  one  must  surrender  all  to  get  it.  Now  observe 
that  in  the  first  plan  the  object,  is  edification  by  increase 
of  knowledge  of  the  subject,  first  knowledge  of  the  nature 
of  the  subject  discussed,  and  secondly  of  its  value,  the  more 
practical  thought  which,  therefore,  comes  last.  Note  also 
that  in  the  practical  plan  the  two  main  topics  of  the  didactic 
plan,  nature  and  value,  are  not  only  expanded  but  are  shaped 
in  the  statement  with  supreme  reference  to  practical  im- 
pression. It  is  a  hidden  treasure.  But  in  the  practical  dis- 
cussion the  hidden  quality  of  it  is  so  shaped  as  to  serve 
an  ethical  purpose,  i.  e.,  because  hidden  it  must  be  sought. 
Again,  it  is  not  hopelessly  hidden.    It  is  so  manifest  that  it 


334  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

may  be  found.  Hence  we  are  encouraged  to  seek  it.  It 
is  valuable.  But  it  is  so  valuable  that  one  can  not  worthily  es- 
timate it.  It  is,  moreover,  so  valuable  that  one  must  sur- 
render all  to  win  it/''  All  this  will  illustrate  the  important 
results  that  would  follow  careful  discrimination  in  the  choice 
of  methods.  By  such  discrimination  one  will  avoid  a  stereo- 
typed method  of  handling  the  sermon.  Each  sermon  will 
have  its  own  plan,  as  conditioned  by  its  character  and  aim. 
There  is  more  involved  in  this  whole  matter  than  appears 
at  the  surface  or  than  the  ordinary  preacher  understands. 

2.  The  number  of  the  topics,  or  the  extent  of  the  plan 
will  also  be  determined  by  the  character  of  the  sermon, 
/.  c,  by  the  aim  of  the  sermon  as  well  as  the  character  of 
the  subject.  The  didactic  and  particularly  the  doctrinal 
or  argumentative  sermon,  that  aims  to  do  full  justice  to 
the  subject,  in  general,  demands  a  more  elaborate  and  ex- 
tensive i)lan  than  the  lighter  and  more  practical  sermon. 
But  no  invariable  rule  can  be  laid  down.  Even  here  the 
proper  aim  of  the  sermon  will  necessarily  limit  the  extent 
of  the  plan.  Many  didactic  sermons,  like  the  one  above 
cited,  have  but  few  main  topics.  They  are  likely,  however,  to 
have  a  good  many  subordinate  topics.  Note  in  passing 
that  the  didactic  sermon  in  the  hands  of  an  unfruitful 
preacher  is  likely  to  handle  a  certain  limited  number  of 
topics  and  so  result  in  a  stereotyped  method.  This  may 
be  true  of  all  classes  of  sermons  in  such  hands.  But  it 
is  particularly  true  of  sermons  of  this  class. 

Note  also  that  the  modern  sermon  of  whatever  class  has 
but  relatively  few  topics.  The  plan  is  brief  and  simple. 
This  is  perhaps  due  to  the  fact  that  it  is  less  doctrinal  and 
therefore  must  be  less  elaborate.  It  is  due  also  to  the 
influence    of    modern    literary    culture    and    to    the    practical 

♦These   two  plans  are    from   some  Gorman   writer   on    liomiletics 
whose  name  the  author  has   forgotten. 


THE  OUTLINE  335 

tendency  to  combine  the  interest  of  the  object  with  that 
of  the  subject  more  fully  than  our  homiletic  ancestors  did. 
The  older  method  secured  doctrinally  instructive  preaching. 
The  newer  method  more  suggestive  and  animating  preach- 
ing. It  is  a  less  formal,  less  stereotyped  and  a  more  vital 
and  organic  method  of  handling  the  material  of  the  ser- 
mon. Note  further  that  any  plan  presupposes  the  discus- 
sion of  more  than  a  single  topic  or  phase  of  the  subject. 
There  are  at  least  two  main  topics  with  subdivisions,  and 
perhaps  three  or  four.  One  may,  indeed,  select  a  single 
limited  phase  of  a  subject  and  treat  it  illustratively.  But 
this  phase  is  the  theme  and  the  illustrations  that  present 
it  in  a  variety  of  aspects  are  in  effect  the  topics.  Moreover, 
all  the  topics,  whether  many  or  few,  should  yield  themselves 
naturally  to  the  preacher's  pressure  upon  his  theme  and 
should  not  be  forced  out  by  far-fetched  association  of  ideas. 
3,  The  topics  all  come  out  of  the  theme  as  a  whole,  and 
do  not  represent  a  mere  fragment  of  it.  It  is  the  theme 
as  a  unit  that  yields  each  topic.  One  can  not  discuss  a 
part  or  a  fragment  of  the  complex  theme  at  one  point  and 
some  phase  of  the  whole  theme  at  another  point  without  intro- 
ducing confusion  and  contradiction.  That  is  to  say;  one  can 
not  change  or  reduce  or  mutilate  his  theme  in  the  process 
of  discussion.  Moreover  the  topics  should  represent  and 
make  manifest  and  felt  the  object  as  well  as  the  subject  of 
the  sermon.  When  they  run  out  of  the  theme  as  conditioned 
by  the  object,  the  whole  sermon  is  held  in  unity  and  within 
proper  limits.  One  of  the  serious  defects  of  the  old  scholas- 
tic sermon  was  that  the  topics  did  not  run  back  to  the 
theme  as  conditioned  by  the  proper  object  of  the  sermon, 
nor  did  they  all  run  back  to  the  theme  as  a  unit.  The  suc- 
cessive topics  related  themselves  each  to  the  other,  one  point 
suggested  another  and  that  another  and  so  the  sermon  drifted 
away  from  the  theme  following  the  lead  of  successive  divi- 


336  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

sions  and  in  the  process  forgot  its  proper  object.  The  topics 
of  the  plan  are  normally  related  to  each  other.  They  prop- 
erly do  not  overlap.  They  are  mutually  exclusive.  Each 
topic  discusses  a  single  phase  of  the  theme  at  the  exclusion 
of  all  others,  and  each  is  of  its  own  kind.  One  can  not 
discuss  the  "how"  or  the  "why"  under  the  category  of  the 
"what."  "Result"  can  not  be  discussed  under  the  category 
of  "cause."  Simplicity  of  content  is  the  point.  Each  topic 
has  in  the  quality  of  its  thought  a  relative  independence  of 
all  other  topics.  One  can  not  turn  back  in  the  discussion 
of  a  topic  to  pick  up  something  that  belongs  to  a  previous 
topic,  nor  reach  forward  to  any  subsequent  topic  and  an- 
ticipate the  discussion  of  it.  Such  confusion  of  thought 
wrecks  the  logic  of  the  sermon. 

4.  The  topics  are  arranged  with  reference  to  unity  and 
progress  of  impression.  The  didactic  topics  are  naturally 
arranged  in  logical  order  and  with  reference  to  unity  and 
progress  of  mental  impression.  The  practical  topics,  or 
such  as  are  chosen  with  reference  to  rhetorical  and  practical 
impression,  are  naturally  arranged  in  what  is  called  rhetorical 
order,  or  with  reference  to  unity,  and  progress  of  emotional 
or  ethical  or  more  comprehensively  practical  impression. 
It  is  not  impossible,  however,  to  combine  the  two  objects, 
arranging  them  with  reference  at  once  to  unity  and  progress 
of  mental  and  of  emotional  and  ethical  impression. 

V.     Value  of  the  Outline 

The  planning  of  the  sermon  consists  in  the  choice  and  ar- 
rangements of  toj'ics.  The  value  of  the  plan  is  the  value 
of  the  topics  in  evolving,  interpreting  and  applying  the 
thought  content  of  the  theme.  The  only  way  of  getting 
at  the  right  topics  and  thus  securing  the  right  plan  for  the 
sermon  is  to  get  at  them  from  the  inside  rather  than  the 
outside,  i.  c,  by  analyzing  and  sifting  the  thought  material 


THE  OUTLINE  337 

of  the  text  and  theme,  getting  at  the  groups  or  centres  of 
thought  that  lie  there  and  then  selecting  such  topics  as 
naturally  evolve  themselves  from  these  groups  of  thought 
and  are  adapted  to  the  object  of  the  sermon  and  arranging 
them  in  order.  The  old  method  of  storing  up  topics  and 
drawing  on  them  at  will  as  from  an  external  storehouse  was 
very  defective.  It  resulted  in  externality  and  artificiality 
of  treatment.  It  laid  undue  emphasis  upon  form  as  dis- 
tinguished from  substance.  It  resulted  in  stereotyped 
method.  The  preacher  who  picks  his  topics  from  the  out- 
side, without  entering  into  the  elements  of  the  subject,  or 
having  respect  to  his  object,  who  lays  them  on  ab-extra, 
or  inserts  them  as  in  an  artificial  frame-work,  will  preach 
mechanically  and  his  product  will  be  wooden.  This  will 
result  again  in  superficiality.  What  is  formal  is  sure  to  be 
superficial.  Thoroughness  is  possible  only  for  one  who 
evolves  his  topics  after  thorough  investigation  of  his  text 
and  subject.  This  external  method  also  results  in  simply 
taking  out  of  the  subject  what  one  has  put  into  it.  If  one 
draws  out  his  topics  from  the  substance  of  thought  in  his 
theme,  if  he  analyses,  classifies  and  groups  his  material  ac- 
cording to  its  natural  thought-relations  and  according  to 
the  demands  of  the  object  of  the  sermon,  he  will  get  what 
is  in  the  subject,  and  not  what  he  imports  into  it.  But 
a  proper  selection  and  use  of  topics  is  simply  a  proper 
planning  of  the  sermon,  and  this  is  of  supreme  importance 
in  the  work  of  the  preacher.  Some  of  the  best  preachers  like 
the  late  Dr.  Magee,  Anglican  Archbishop  of  York,  have 
spent  years  in  careful  training  with  respect  to  the  order- 
ing of  the  thought  of  their  sermons.  What  I  wish  to  do  is  to 
point  out  the  importance  of  the  careful  planning  of  the  ser- 
mon from  three  points  of  view. 

I.     And  first  its  value  with  respect  to  the  production  of 
material,     (i)     A  study  of  the  plan,   which   is  a  study  of 


338  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

topics,  is  necessary  to  disclose  the  resources  of  the  sub- 
ject. It  results  in  a  thorough  knowledge  of  it.  One  knows 
his  theme  analytically,  knows  it  in  its  thought-relations  and 
so  in  its  possibilities  of  development.  One  tests  its  pos- 
sibilities by  trying  many  methods.  This  discloses  the  re- 
sources of  the  subject,  and  this  aids  in  invention.  Without 
such  analysis  one  can  not  know  the  possibilities  of  his  theme. 
The  material  of  the  sermon  is  locked  up  there.  It  is  en- 
tirely hidden  until  it  is  unlocked  and  brought  to  light.  It 
must  be  discovered,  classified,  grouped  about  its  proper 
centres.  This  done,  one  knows  its  scope  and  range,  and 
what  it  is  worth  for  use.  A  mine,  hitherto  unknown,  has 
been  opened.  Its  treasures  run  in  veins  that  are  concealed 
until  the  preacher  has  entered  and  opened  them  up.  That 
is,  there  has  been  set  in  movement  the  action  of  mental  asso- 
ciation, and  the  thought-relations  of  the  subject  have  been 
laid  bare.  We  speak  of  fruitful  themes.  What  are  they? 
They  are  themes  that  open  up  to  the  mind  their  complex- 
ities and  wide-ranging  relations  of  thought.  There  is  doubt- 
less a  difTerence  in  themes  in  this  regard.  Some  are  in 
themselves  more  fruitful  than  others.  But  it  is  largely  a 
relative  matter,  relative  to  the  resources,  the  aptitude,  the  at- 
titude, and  the  activity  of  the  preacher.  The  only  way  to  know 
whether  a  subject  is  fruitful  or  not  is  to  thrust  in  the  probe 
and  test  it  by  opening  up  its  thought-relations  in  a  well- 
ordered  plan.  It  is  this  tested  capacity  of  the  subject  to 
open  itself  up  to  the  mind  that  quickens  mental  action.  It 
may  also  quicken  the  imagination  and  in  so  doing  may 
quicken  the  emotions  and  possibly  the  moral  and  spiritual 
susceptibilities,  as  one  gets  inside  of  it.  This  is  a  condition 
of  homiletic  productiveness.  By  the  fruitfulness  of  a  sub- 
ject then,  we  mean  its  capacity  to  yield  its  treasures  to 
topical  analysis  and  arrangement.  One  may  find  that  sub- 
jects, which  at  first  seemed  barren,  will  open  with  wonder- 


THE  OUTLINE  339 

ful  interest  and  productiveness  when  subjected  to  the  test 
of  analysis.  The  habit  of  sketching  outHnes  along  different 
lines  of  mental  association  is  a  valuable  one.  The  outlines 
show  the  subject  in  different  lights,  in  different  relations. 
And  this  agitation  of  thought  in  its  various  relations  will 
yield  a  wealth  of  material  from  which  one  may  select  for  the 
particular  line  at  last  chosen.  (2)  I  have  already  sug- 
gested that  a  study  of  the  plan  may  quicken  mental  and 
emotional  activity.  But  it  may  be  well  to  linger  with  it. 
The  mind  is  at  home  only  in  the  realm  of  order.  Get  it 
on  to  the  right  track,  set  it  in  movement  along  the  right 
line  and  it  will  move  freely  and  vigorously.  It  must  move 
normally  in  the  investigation  of  a  subject,  i.  e.,  it  must 
move  in  line  with  its  own  laws.  If  it  gets  at  cross  purposes 
with  itself,  it  ceases  to  act.  Every  earnest  thinker  knows 
the  glow  of  enthusiasm  with  which  he  enters  a  subject, 
when  he  sees  that  he  is  on  the  right  track,  that  the  way 
opens  up  broadly  and  that  he  has  free  range  as  along 
a  great  highway.  Recall  Robert  Hall's  declaration  that  he 
could  do  nothing  as  a  preacher  till  he  had  "cut  out  a 
channer'  for  his  thoughts.  It  is  a  grand  experience  for 
a  preacher  to  know  the  joy  of  mental  and  emotional  and 
spiritual  freedom  in  moving  along  the  lead  of  a  great  reli- 
gious truth  that  opens  up  its  broad  avenues  before  him. 
(3)  A  careful  study  of  the  plan  is  necessary  for  the  selec- 
tion of  the  right  sort  of  material,  material  fitted  to  the  par- 
ticular sort  of  sermon  in  hand,  or  to  the  particular  object 
of  the  sermon,  or  to  the  audience.  It  rescues  preaching 
from  caprice.  We  often  wonder  why  preachers  pitch  upon 
certain  themes  in  their  use  of  texts  and  why  they  handla 
them  as  they  do.  Possibly  they  do  not  know  thoroughly 
Avell  themselves,  or  do  not  know  that  they  know  or  how 
they  know.  It  sometimes  seems  almost  a  matter  of  chance, 
or  of  caprice.    Suitable  reflection  and  choice  based  on  such 


340  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

reflection  would  secure  pertinence  and  harmony  in  the  dis- 
cussion, for  just  the  topics  needed  are  available.  Such  re- 
flection will  secure  variety  in  treatment.  A  stereotyped 
method  is  the  product  of  the  preacher's  unfamiliarity  with 
the  possible  categories  of  thought  that  might  be  evolved 
from  the  subject.  Familiarity  with  them  would  put  the 
preacher  upon  the  work  of  developing  the  sermon  variously. 
One  category  suggests  another.  Reflection  and  choice  se- 
cure variety, — variety  not  only  in  the  treatment  of  subjects, 
but  variety  as  to  the  types  of  the  sermon.  For  it  enables 
one  to  distinguish  between  methods  that  are  appropriate 
to  different  classes  of  sermons.  It  is  also  an  aid  in  dis- 
criminating with  respect  to  methods  of  handling,  not  only 
the  theme,  but  other  parts  of  the  sermon.  It  helps  one  in 
the  work  of  introduction,  in  deducing  themes  from  texts 
and  in  concluding  the  sermon.  In  this  way,  one  acquires 
facility  in  the  handling  of  his  sermons.  But  it  is  of  special 
value  in  shaping  any  sort  of  sermon  with  reference  to  the 
realization  of  its  proper  object.  Not  everything  may  be  said 
in  any  sermon  that  might  be  said,  or  that  one  would  like 
to  say,  or  that  the  audience  might  like  to  have  one  say, 
or  that  the  subject,  in  and  of  itself,  and  by  itself  might 
sanction  one  in  saying.  For  the  sermon  is  not  a  thesis  or 
a  treatise  or  a  disquisition,  not  something  for  the  eye  to 
be  read  and  studied.  It  is  an  oratorical  product  for  the  ear. 
It  must  be  caught  at  once.  It  is  limited  by  its  character 
and  function  as  an  address.  It  is  designed  to  open  up  a 
subject,  not  for  the  sake  of  the  subject  alone  in  its  wide- 
reaching  relations  of  thought  but  for  the  purpose  of  in- 
fluencing an  audience.  One  may  say,  therefore,  only  what 
the  object  of  the  sermon  requires  one  to  say.  As  to  its 
quality,  quantity  and  method  this  material  should  be  fitted 
to  the  realization  of  this  object.  A  process  of  selection, 
therefore,  is  necessary.     Now,  it  is  the  plan  that  conditions 


THE  OUTLINE  341 

this  selection.  It  binds  the  sermon  to  the  end  in  view. 
One  who  has  no  well-planned  method  of  conducting  his  dis- 
cussion, not  only  does  not  know  what  to  say  with  reference 
to  the  demands  of  the  subject  but  of  the  object  as  well. 
He  strikes  wildly.  In  fact  without  a  well-ordered  plan  one 
can  not  have  a  well-considered  aim  at  all.  A  house  may 
be  built  as  easily  as  a  sermon  without  a  plan.  Planning  is  a 
process  of  "natural  selection"  and  exclusion,  the  result  of 
which  binds  the  sermon  to  its  proper  objective  point. 

2,  The  value  of  well-ordered  arrangement  with  reference 
to  the  logical  qualities  of  the  sermon  or  its  organic  relations 
of  thought.  There  are  thought-relations  that  bind  the  ser- 
mon and  hold  it  in  logical  consistency.  They  secure  har- 
mony and  preclude  the  possibility  of  logical  discords,  (i) 
Unity  is  essential  to  harmony  in  the  thought-relations  of 
a  sermon.  The  sermon  is  one  whole.  It  discusses  one  theme 
and  has  one  chief  ultimate  aim.  The  theme  may  be  com- 
plex and  the  aim  may  be  complex,  but  there  is  only  one 
main  thought  and  one  chief  aim.  This  thought  should  be 
so  presented  to  the  mind  as  to  leave  unity  of  mental  im- 
pression in  all  varieties  of  thought  and  should  be  so  shaped 
that  it  will  have  unity  of  ethical  impression  in  all  its  varieties 
of  ethical  incentive.  This  double  unity,  unity  of  subject  and  of 
object,  of  thought  and  of  impression,  should  be  wrought  into 
one  harmonious  whole.  Unity  of  thought  in  preaching  has 
received  chief  emphasis.  This  has  been  regarded  as  homi- 
letic  unity  by  preeminence.  This  is  because  the  didactic 
element  has  been  so  prominent  in  Protestant  preaching  es- 
pecially. The  aim  has  been  to  do  justice  to  the  subject.  But 
the  aim  should  also  be  to  do  justice  to  the  object.  Preaching 
should  include  what  is  characteristic  in  dramatic  impression. 
Dramatic  unity  aims  at  one  supreme  resulting  impression.  All 
the  forces  of  character  and  of  plot  are  brought  to  bear, 
concentrate  upon  one  point.   Didactic  unity  seeks  one  supreme 


342  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

result  in  thought.  It  will  hold  all  the  elements  of  thought 
bound  back  to  one  centre.  But  homiletic  unity  should  also 
pour  all  the  forces  of  personality,  as  well  as  of  thought,  in 
the  handling  of  the  sermon,  concentrate  upon  one  moral 
result.  The  need  of  this  double  unity  is  grounded  in  the 
constitution  of  the  human  soul.  Let  a  speaker  secure  one 
strong,  leading  mental  impression  and  at  the  same  time 
one  strong  emotional  and  moral  impression  and  he  has 
wrought  a  result  which  the  soul  by  the  very  make  of  it, 
craves,  and  which  is  conducive  to  its  welfare,  for  it  is  con- 
ducive to  its  quickening,  enlargement  and  growth.  We  are 
not  at  home  with  disharmony.  The  end  of  all  high  art  is 
unity  and  harmony.  It  is  perhaps  preeminently  so  in  that 
greatest  and  noblest  of  all  arts  in  some  aspects,  the  art  of 
efifective  public  speech.  The  highest  sort  of  moral  quicken- 
ing and  enlargement  may  be  conditioned  by  it.  (2)  Com- 
pleteness is  also  essential  to  the  harmonious  thought- 
relations  of  a  sermon.  Unity  of  subject  and  object  commit  it 
to  completeness,  for  it  must  bring  out  what  there  is  in  the 
subject  conceived  as  one  whole  and  in  such  way  and  to 
such  extent  as  will  realize  its  object.  As  the  germ  of  the 
sermon  the  theme  should  grow  into  the  fully-developed 
organism.  Without  the  development  of  what  belongs  to 
it  and  is  procommitted  to  it  by  the  theme,  it  is  a  mutilated 
product,  just  as  any  organism  would  be  mutilated  that  should 
not  contain  what  properly  belongs  to  it  and  is  pledged  to 
it  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  it  is  an  organism.  Complete- 
ness, however,  is  relative,  relative  to  the  specific  conception 
and  statement  of  the  theme.  For  what  is  necessary  to  bring 
out  adequately  the  meaning  of  the  theme  as  conceived  and 
stated  is  essential.  It  is  relative  to  the  line  of  thought 
chosen.  For  what  is  essential  to  this  line  of  thought  should 
be  brought  out.  Rut  completeness  is  also  relative  to  the  aim 
of  the  sermon.     For  what  will  fit  the  sermon  for  the   re- 


THE  OUTLINE  343 

alization  of  its  object  should  come  into  discussion.  Well 
now,  it  is  careful  analysis  that  settles  this  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  at  the  outset.  When  once  one  has  arranged  the 
elements  of  his  theme  according  to  a  scheme  that  has 
reference  to  a  given  impression,  he  will,  of  course,  know  the 
better  whether  the  sermon  will  discuss  the  subject  as  it 
should  be  discussed. 

(3)  Symmetry  also  is  necessary  to  harmony.  A  sermon 
may  have  a  certain  unity  and  completeness,  and  yet  lack 
symmetry,  i.  e.,  proportion  of  parts.  A  single  topic  may 
have  a  prominence  and  fulness  of  development  dispropor- 
tionate to  its  intrinsic  importance,  e.  g.,  its  importance  as 
a  phase  of  the  subject,  or  disproportionate  as  related  to  the 
object  of  the  sermon,  so  as  to  throw  what  is  of  equal  or 
greater  importance  into  the  background.  The  sermon  is 
a  disproportionate  whole.  It  is  injured,  not  simply  as  a  work 
of  art,  but  as  an  effective  instrument.  Unity  of  mental  and 
moral  impression  may  be  injured.  A  mechanical  symmetry, 
or  a  proportion  of  parts  that  satisfies  the  eye  as  it  rests 
upon  the  page  or  the  ear  as  it  listens  to  the  sermon,  a  sort 
of  French  artistic  pedantry,  is  not  the  thing  advocated,  but 
a  proportion  as  related  to  mental  and  moral  impression. 
Now,  this  proportion  is  assured  by  a  process  of  method- 
ical arrangement  of  the  elements  of  the  theme.  Without 
a  carefully-arranged  plan  in  the  mind  one  is  likely  to  over- 
elaborate  one  or  two  topics  that  interest  him  most  at  the 
time  and  to  leave  too  little  time  for  the  expansion  of  other 
topics  of  equal  or  even  of  greater  importance  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  sermon.  Preachers  are  likely  to  overwork  the 
first  one  or  two  topics  and  to  crowd  or  mutilate  the  latter 
part  of  the  sermon,  so  that  it  lacks  rhetorical  efifectiveness, 
A  methodical  outlining  of  the  whole  subject  based  on  a 
careful  survey  of  it  at  the  outset  might  result  in  an  avoid- 
ance of  this. 


344  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

(4)  Finally  progress  is  essential  to  harmony,  an  orderly 
movement  from  one  landing-place  to  another  and  from  the 
less  to  the  more  important  topics  of  discussion.  "A  Sermon" 
says  V'inet,  "is  a  procession,  not  a  promenade."  It  may  be 
one,  may  be  complete,  may  be  proportionate,  and  yet  dis- 
orderly, the  parts  are  all  there,  all  related  to  the  whole,  all 
there  in  symmetrical  development,  all  running  on  to  one 
goal,  and  yet  the  parts  may  be  displaced.  A  disorderly 
or  a  disarranged  whole  is  a  monstrosity  in  art  as  in  nature. 
Each  part  of  a  sermon  should  have  a  relative  complete- 
ness of  its  own,  while  it  somehow  leads  up  to  the  next  part 
beyond  it  and  so  holds  the  hearer  in  the  line  of  movement 
to  the  end.  Careful  planning  of  the  sermon  distributes  the 
topics  and  sets  them  in  their  proper  places.  I'rogress  is 
an  important  mark  of  an  oratorical  product.  The  essay 
may  circle  about  a  centre  of  thought  and  make  no  head. 
The  oration,  the  address,  the  sermon  must  move  on.  It 
should  be  in  some  sort  a  triumphant  movement.  To  reach 
successfully  the  crown-heights  of  an  oratorical  process  is 
to  secure  the  supreme  impression  sought.  Cumulative  power, 
the  power  that  adds  stroke  after  stroke  to  the  impression, 
each  successive  stroke  more  effective  than  its  predecessor 
and  the  last  most  effective  of  all,  this  is  essential  to  the  best 
oratorical  effects.  Now  it  is  evident  enough  that  careful 
planning  of  the  sermon  will  secure  it  against  a  zig-zag  or 
retrograde  movement.  No  preacher  can  develop  an  effect- 
ive plan  and  fiat  out  in  anti-climax. 

3.  The  value  of  careful  outline  with  refernce  to  rhetorical 
expression.  Logic  is  practically  a  part  of  rhetoric.  In  hom- 
iletics  it  deals  with  the  relations  of  thought  not  for  its 
own  sake  as  a  science,  and  not  for  the  sake  merely  of  re- 
gulating the  thinking  of  the  preacher,  but  with  reference 
to  practical  use  in  the  art  of  speech  and  with  reference  to 
practical  results  in  dealing  with  men.     Logical  effectiveness 


THE  OUTLINE  345 

is,  therefore,  a  part  of  the  problem  of  rhetorical  effective- 
ness. Other  things  being  equal,  the  more  effectively  or- 
dered thought  is,  the  more  effectively  uttered  it  is  likely  to 
be.  Three  elements  of  rhetorical  effectiveness  may  be  con- 
ditioned by  homiletic  order,  clearness,  force,  grace. 

(i)  Clearness.  A  clear  expression  of  thought  depends 
not  merely  upon  lucidity  of  diction,  but  upon  clearness  of 
conception,  and  of  arrangement.  Perspicacity  is  necessary 
to  perspicuity.  Thought  can  not  be  clearly  uttered  if  it 
be  not  clearly  apprehended.  But  both  clearness  of  appre- 
hension and  clearness  of  diction  may  be  largely  dependent 
on  clearness  of  arrangement.  Disorderly  method  may  in- 
volve one  in  obscurity  of  thought  and  this  will  unfavorably 
affect  one's  clearness  of  diction.  The  truth  must  be  seen 
in  its  relations.  A  subject  is  mastered  only  when  it  is 
mastered  in  its  relations.  It  is  not  well  handled  if  it  be 
not  handled  in  its  logical  relations.  We  take  in  groups  of 
objects  m  space,  if  we  do  it  thoroughly,  by  individualizing 
the  objects  in  succession  and  then  holding  them  in  their  re- 
lations to  the  whole.  And  so  we  take  in  what  moves  in  time, 
as  the  sermon  does,  by  objects  that  mark  relation  and  suc- 
cession. We  get  the  whole  by  getting  the  parts.  If  one  can 
not  arrange  his  thoughts  under  a  definite  subject  he  is  not 
yet  ready  to  begin  work.  He  has  not  attained  to  a  well- 
balanced  conception  and  to  a  clear  comprehension  of  what 
he  would  be  at.  He  should  keep  at  it  till  his  thoughts  fall 
into  line  like  troops  at  an  officer's  command.  Who  can 
fail  to  see  that  Frederick  Robertson's  clear-cut,  incisive 
preaching  was  due  largely  to  his  orderly  method?  He  mas- 
tered his  subject.  The  result  was  that  he  said  the  right  thing 
m  the  right  place.  I  believe  that  the  crystalline  clearness 
of  his  style  was  largely  conditioned  by  his  grasp  of  the  sub- 
ject in  hand.  To  say  that  a  man  is  a  clear  thinker  is  to  say 
that  he  has  thought  his  subject  through,  that  he  has  a  clear 


346  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

perception  of  it  in  its  relations  of  thought,  and  that  in  so 
doing  he  has  mastered  it.  A  clear  style  is  dependent  on 
this.  Not  even  inspiration  itself  could  neutralize  the  in- 
eflfectiveness  of  a  shambling,  inconsequential  method  of  hand- 
ling a  subject.  There  are  preachers,  suggestive  preachers 
we  call  them,  who  do  not  care  to  expose  their  outiine. 
Their  thought  and  diction  may  be  clear  enough,  for  obtru- 
sion of  outline  is  not  always  necessary  to  correctness  and 
clearness  of  outline.  But  one  can  not  name  an  educative 
and  edifying  preacher,  whose  work  has  permanent  results, 
whose  sermons  are  seriously  defective  in  structural  quality 
or  who  has  no  well-defined  outline.  Educative  preaching, 
which  is  in  the  fullest  sense  edifying  preaching,  whose  mark  is 
clearness  of  thought  and  expression,  will  always  value  the 
clearly-manifest  division.  If  one  aims  also  at  immediate, 
vivid,  cumulative  rhetorical  impression  of  the  best  sort,  he 
will  look  out  for  his  method.  Recall  the  judicious  words 
of  Phillips  Brooks.*  "Give  your  sermon  an  orderly,  con- 
sistent progress,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  let  your  hearers 
see  it  distinctly,  for  it  will  help  them  first  to  understand 
and  then  to  remember  what  you  say."  This  advice  is  perhaps 
the  more  weighty  that  he  was  willing  to  give  it  in  the  face  of 
the  fact  that  he  was  not  always  scrupulously  faithful  to  it  in 
his  own  preaching. 

(2)  Force.  \'igorous  preaching  is  not  wholly  a  matter  of 
incisive  individual  thought,  or  of  intense  rhetorical  expression. 
Essay-writers,  like  Emerson,  have  doubtless  a  vigor  of  their 
own  which  is  not  dependent  on  clear  order  of  thought.  But  the 
vigor  of  the  essayist  is  not  that  which  is  demanded  in  preach- 
ing. Forcefulness  of  pulpit  style  is  partly  a  question  of 
method.  A  vigorous  sermon  should  be  tense  and  cumula- 
tive. It  should  be  organized  closely,  move  rapidly,  and 
rise  as   it  moves.     It   should   press   straight   on   to   its   goal, 


♦Yale  Lectures,  Lecture  V.     Page  178. 


THE  OUTLINE  347 

and  each  part  should  push  the  movement  vigorously  on. 
If  one  seeks  strength  of  impression,  he  must  say  with  himself 
and  mean  it.  "This  one  thing  I  do:  I  press  on."  Now, 
this  means  orderly  movement.  A  discussion  that  flows  on 
at  its  "own  sweet  will"  easily  flows  beyond  proper  bounds 
and  becomes  ineffective,  because  it  is  straggling  and  thin. 
But  a  thorough  discussion,  thorough  in  its  order,  with 
thoughts  marshalled  as  a  general  marshals  his  troops  and 
hurls  them  upon  one  point,  is  wonderously  intense  and  ef- 
fective. This  is  the  Napoleonic  strategy  of  the  pulpit  orator. 
In  forensic  oratory  most  great  triumphs  have  been  won 
in  this  way.  The  orator  marshalls  his  material,  pushes  it  on 
toward  one  point,  secures  cumulative  force  for  it  as  it 
moves,  gathers  it  all  up  at  the  end  and  as  Theodore  Parker 
says  of  a  great  English  orator,  "lets  the  ruin  fly."  Many 
of  the  triumphs  of  the  pulpit — rhetorically  speaking — have 
been  won  in  something  the  same  way.  The  sermon  that  is 
intense  in  its  vigor,  is  condensed  as  being  compacted  together 
and  crowded  upon  its  objective  point,  and  it  is  compact 
because  methodical  and  methodical  because  thoroughly 
thought  out  and  planned.  Theodore  Parker,  who  knew  the 
great  orators,  knew  the  secret  of  their  method  and  realized 
something  of  it  in  his  own  preaching.  "Nothing,"  we  are 
told,*  "was  commenced  until  a  brief  or  scheme  of  it  lay 
complete  upon  his  desk.  When  reading  and  meditation,  tak- 
ing copious  notes  meanwhile,  had  furnished  him  with  a  view 
of  the  whole  subject,  so  that  he  saw  not  only  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  but  the  details  and  subdivisions  of  each  head, 
he  began  to  write  *****  He  never  undertook  to  lay 
his  track  until  he  had  made  a  most  careful  and  methodical 
survey  of  the  route  he  must  travel.  He  was  all  the  time 
making   statements    and    organizing   thought.      How   many 


*  Weiss*   Life   and    Correspondence    of    Theodore    Parker,    vol.    ii 
pages  8,  9,  12,  13. 


348  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

clerg>-men  use  their  brains  for  bait,  and  wait  in  resigna- 
tion for  the  nibble  of  a  text."  (3)  Grace.  Elegance  of  lit- 
erary style  is  not  merely  a  matter  of  syntax  and  vocabulary. 
This  is  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  rhetoric.  A  semi-poetic 
diction  and  fluent  syntax  alone  do  not  secure  grace  or 
elegance  of  utterance.  Nor  is  it  wholly  a  matter  of  thought 
and  feeling.  It  is  a  question  of  method  as  well.  Writers 
on  rhetoric  and  homiletics  have  not  minimized  this  fact. 
Prof.  Shedd  has  some  discriminating  words  upon  it.*  In 
pulpit  speech  we  need  grace  of  form  as  well  as  of  color. 
Vocabulary  may  furnish  color,  but  structure  yields  grace  of 
form.  "Drawing  gives  the  skeleton,"  says  Balzac,  "and  color 
gives  the  life;  but  life  without  the  skeleton  is  a  far  more  in- 
complete thing  than  the  skeleton  without  the  life."t  Order, 
proportion,  unity,  harmony,  progress,  these  are  important 
elements  in  grace  of  pulpit  style.  Mere  verbal  decorations 
are  tawdry.  If  a  sermon  lacks  order,  it  lacks  elegance.  It 
was  not  ornamentation  alone  that  constituted  the  elegance 
of  Jeremy  Taylor's  pulpit  style.  Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie's 
style  had  color,  but  his  preaching  lacked  the  highest  qua- 
lities of  elegance.  The  sermon  that  has  good  method  with 
fresh  and  well-expressed  thought  will  always  be  interest- 
ing. We  are  carried  along  by  a  clear,  steady,  orderly  move- 
ment of  suggestive  thought.  A  disorderly  sermon  is  sure  to 
lead  to  disagreeable  surprises.  One  doesn't  know  what  will 
turn  up  next.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that  an 
sesthctic  interest  is  promoted  by  abandoning  clearness  of 
outline,  as  if  it  were  of  no  importance.  A  man  who  is  alive 
will  have  no  stitT,  formal,  artificial  method  in  the  pulpit, 
but  method  he  will  have,  method  that  is  the  product  of  life. 
Such  method  will  have  grace  of  movement  from  beginning, 
through  all  transitions,  to  the  end. 


*  Homiletics  Chap.  III. 

t  Balzac  on  Painting  in  "The  Hidden  Masterpiece,"  page  317. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DEVELOPMENT 

The  development  is  the  expansion  of  the  outHne.  It  is 
the  outHne  brought  into  full  form.  It  is  not  the  direct 
expansion  of  the  theme,  but  of  the  plan.  The  structureless 
germ,  the  theme,  becomes  structural  in  the  plan,  and  the  de- 
velopment brings  out  the  full-grown  organism.  It  has  been 
called  the  "beginning  of  the  battle."  Carrying  out  this  mil- 
itary figure,  we  may  call  the  choice  of  theme  the  selection 
of  the  battle-ground,  and  the  plan  the  disposition  or  ar- 
rangement of  forces,  the  battle-array.  The  development, 
therefore,  is  the  battle  according  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
plan.  The  battle  opening  with  the  beginning  of  the  de- 
velopment,  the  introduction  would  be  the  skirmish  hne. 
The  development,  therefore,  belongs  to  structural  as  well 
as  to  material  homiletics. 

I.     Methods  of  Development 

The  development  should,  of  course,  produce  the  kind  of 
sermon  and  reali7e  the  object  to  which  the  theme  and  out- 
line precommit  it.  Comprehensively  stated,  however,  it  should 
always  undertake  to  do  two  things.  It  should  interpret  the 
truth  in  discussion  to  the  mind,  so  far  as  it  needs  interpreta- 
tion, and  it  should  apply  the  truth  to  practical  interests. 
The  development  will,  therefore,  be  of  two  general  sorts. 
It  will  be  partly  didactic  and  partly  persuasive.  Here  once 
more  we  come  back  to  the  nature  and  object  of  Christian 
preaching  in  its  most  comprehensive  conception.  The  two 
interests  may  conceivably  be  separated.    A  sermon  may  be 


350  THE   WORK    OF    THE    PREACHER 

wholly  didactic  or  wholly  persuasive.  But,  as  already  sug- 
gested, the  ordinary  sermon  should  have  reference  to  both 
of  these  interests.  It  is  well  if  they  interblend  and  are  not 
wholly  separate.  The  teaching  sermon  may  well  have  a 
practical  aim  and  a  concrete  form,  and  the  impressional  or 
persuasive  sermon  may  well  presuppose  and  rest  upon  a 
didactic  basis.  There  need  be  no  hard  and  fast  line  between 
them.  The  best  sort  of  sermon  in  general  interprets  to 
the  mind  what  needs  interpretation  and  at  the  same  time 
makes  practical  application  of  it.  It  reaches  as  large  a 
number  of  the  faculties  as  possible.  It  speaks  to  the  mind, 
to  the  imagination,  to  the  conscience,  to  the  emotions  and 
it  impels  to  action.  In  different  types  of  sermon,  however, 
there  will  naturally  be  prepwDnderance  of  the  one  or  the 
other  quality.  There  are  three  possible  ways  of  introducing 
these  elements  into  a  sermon.  It  may  be  done  by  separat- 
ing them,  as  the  scholastic  sermon  did,  or  its  successor 
the  old  New  England  doctrinal  sermon.  Here  we  have 
first  exposition,  or  discussion,  or  argument  and  then  ap- 
plication. This  was  largely  the  method  of  Saurin,  the  great 
French  Protestant  preacher,  of  the  preachers  of  the  Angli- 
can Church  in  the  seventeenth  century;  South  and  Barrow, 
whom  Henry  Ward  Bcccher  followed  in  a  measure  in  his 
early  preaching,  and  of  Dr.  Emmons  of  Massachusetts,  who 
always  separated  argument  from  application.  It  may  be 
done,  secondly,  by  giving  the  sermon  that  is  prevailingly 
didactic  a  continuous  practical  turn,  as  well  as  by  the  in- 
troduction of  inferential  and  more  distinctively  practical 
thoughts  at  the  end.  The  method  largely  of  Dr.  Horace 
Bushnell.  Or  thirdly,  it  may  be  done  by  giving  the  ser- 
mon that  is  prevailingly  impressional  so  vigorous  a  grip 
upon  the  mind  by  the  skillful  use  of  expository  methods 
that  it  at  once  interests  and  instructs  as  well  as  moves  the 
hearer.     This  was  characteristic  of  the  preaching  of  Phillips 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  351 

Brooks.  But  let  us  consider  these  two  methods  of  de- 
velopment in  succession.  It  is,  of  course,  understood  that 
the  two  are  separated  only  for  purposes  of  analysis. 

I.  The  didactic  development.  (i)  Consider  first  its 
value.  It  is  necessary  to  the  practical  effectiveness  of  preach- 
ing. The  preacher  is  a  public  teacher.  He  should  wish 
to  be  the  intellectual  leader  of  his  people.  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  even  common  people,  so-called,  are 
interested  in  preaching-  in  proportion  as  it  is  uninstructive. 
Properly  handled,  instructive  preaching  can  not  fail  to  be 
effective.  The  average  man  is  inquisitive,  especially  about 
the  problems  of  religion.  A  clear,  vigorous,  illustratively 
persuasive  handling  of  a  religious  theme  will  have  attraction 
for  such  a  mind.  The  too  common  defect  in  didactic  preach- 
ing is  that  it  does  not  come  to  the  hearer  in  appropriate 
popular  form.  The  pulpit  problem  is  not  to  say  just  as 
little  as  possible,  but  to  put  substantial  thought  into  at- 
tractive concrete  form.  The  element  of  success,  if  we  may 
speak  of  it  as  having  any  success,  in  so-called  sensational 
preaching,  is  not  its  poverty  of  material,  but  its  vivacity 
and  concreteness  of  form.  Such  speech  is  attractive.  But 
it  is  a  great  mistake  to  imagine  that  good  thinking  is  pro- 
portionately unattractive.  Preaching  should  never  degen- 
erate into  a  barren  intellectualism.  That  is  not  preaching. 
But  it  should  be  masculine  in  quality.  It  should  have  some 
mental  grip.  Sentiment,  fancy,  feeling  are  necessary  in 
preaching,  but  they  may  degenerate  into  sentimentalism  or 
sensationalism  of  an  offensive  sort.  True  didactic  preaching, 
which  is  sound  thinking  put  in  concrete,  popular  form, 
avoids  the  extreme  of  intellectualism  on  the  one  side  and 
of  sentimentalism  or  sensationalism  on  the  other. 

It  secures  an  intelligent  faith  and  builds  up  strong  cha- 
racter. It  deals  with  men  as  rational  beings.  It  furnishes 
intelligent  and  intelligible  reasons   for  accepting  the   truth 


352  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

that  is  necessary  to  build  character.  It  need  not  be  po- 
lemical, nor  even  apologetic,  and  yet  somehow  or  other, 
that  which  is  felt  to  be  the  truth  must  be  seen  to  be  the 
truth.  (2)  Consider,  secondly,  some  of  its  methods.  There 
are  various  methods  of  expounding  or  interpreting  the  truth 
or  of  getting  thought  out  before  the  mind.  Some  of  them 
are  particularly  well  adapted  to  the  work  of  pulpit  teaching. 
Writers  on  rhetoric  have  discussed  them  copiously,  and  there 
is  no  need  to  linger  with  them  in  their  pulpit  applications. 
But  a  few  of  them  may  well  be  noted.  The  method  of 
•  generalization  is  employed  by  the  most  thoughtful  and  in- 
structive as  well  as  persuasive  preachers  of  our  day.  I  have 
spoken  of  it  in  other  relations,  but  it  may  well  be  touched 
upon  in  connection  with  tlie  development  of  the  sermon. 
Of  course,  the  choice  of  topics  conditions  largely  the  didactic 
method  of  the  development.  But  to  touch  upon  it  in  this  im- 
mediate connection  is  hardly  repetition.  It  was  the  opinion 
of  Mosheim,  the  reformer  of  German  preaching,  that  in 
the  higher  class  of  didactic  sermons  a  general  view  of  the 
subject  or  the  comprehensive  and  under-running  principles 
of  the  truth  in  discussion  should  always  be  presented.  It 
is  a  matter  of  observation  that  those  preachers  who  gen- 
eralize their  discussions,  who  show  that  the  particular  truth 
in  hand  has  wide-reaching  relations  and  exemplifications 
in  various  realms  of  thought  and  experience,  are  peculiarly 
instructive,  attractive  and  helpful  preachers.  They  show 
that  Christian  truth  is  not  provincial,  but  cosmopolitan,  and 
they  thus  show  its  reasonal)leness.  Particularization  is  the 
opposite  method.  The  use  of  it  as  an  expository  method 
makes  preaching  definite  and  specific.  It  holds  attention 
for  the  time  to  but  the  one  thing  in  hand  and  intensifies 
impression.  Inference  or  deduction  or  what  is  called  re- 
flection is  another  method.  A  large  amount  of  expository 
work,  larger  than  one  would  imagine,  consists  in  inferential 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  353 

reflections  upon  the  subject  in  discussion.     We  are  always 
running  off  into  the  rivulets  of  thought  that  flow  from  the. 
main    stream.     These    inferential    deductions    are    valuable 
methods  of  interpreting  a  subject,  for  the  reason  that  they 
expand  and  broaden  the  significance  of  the  main  thought. 
They  suggest  its  productiveness.     They  show  the   subject 
in  its  logical  thought-relations.    Contrast  is  another  method. 
Example  another.     Citation,  which  is   a  sort  of  appeal  to 
authority,  is  another.    Expansion  by  iteration  is  still  another. 
In  didactic  discourse,  which  is  not  to  be  read  but  heard, 
and  must  be  taken  in  at  once,  iteration  becomes  necessary, 
for  thought  needs  expansion  for  the  purpose  of  elucidation. 
Repeating  thought   in  various   forms   brings   out   its   inner 
significance.     Lawyers  know  its  value.     And  so  do  political 
orators    like    Edmund    Burke.     Preachers    like    Dr.    Alex- 
ander   McKenzie    have    learned    the    art    of    iteration    and 
thus  make  their  discussions  the  more  luminous  and  attractive, 
if  not  the   more  weighty.     Observe,   iteration   avails   itself 
of   antithesis   and   draws   on   the   opposite   pole   of  thought 
for   light.     Various   forms  of   analogy   are   valuable   in  the 
teachmg  development.     One  thing  is  set  in  analogous  rela- 
tion with    another.     Each    throws   light    upon    the    other, 
because  they  belong  to  the  same  family.     It  shows  how  wide- 
ranging  principles   are   and   how   things   at   first   seemingly 
diverse   are   held   together   in   the   unity   of   a   fundamental 
law.     Hence  the  possibility  of  classification  and  generaliza- 
tion.      The  field  of  analogy  is  a  wide  one.       It  is  furnished 
by  every  department  of  knowledge.     The  point  to  be  es- 
pecially noted   in  the  use  of   analogy,   is,   as   Whateley   has 
pointed   out,*   that  the  likeness   is   in   the   relations   of  the 
objects   brought   into    comparison    and   not    in    the    objects 
themselves,  and  these  objects  belong  to  different   spheres. 
There   may  be   little   or   no   resemblance   between   the   ob- 

*  Rhetoric,  Chap.  II,  page  Ii8. 


354  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

jects  themselves  that  belong  to  these  different  spheres,  but 
in  their  relations  they  may  be  alike,  e.  g.,  the  analog-y  in  the 
parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  is  not  primarily  between  be- 
ings but  between  the  relations  of  beings  belonging  to  two 
different  spheres.  The  likeness  is  not  primarily  between 
God  and  a  human  father  but  between  God's  relation  to 
man  and  a  father's  relation  to  his  son.  Any  species  of 
analogy,  except  the  strained  analogy  called  allegory,  may 
be  used  in  the  didactic  development.  It  has  always  been 
an  attractive  and  valuable  didactic  method.  The  pulpit 
is  heir  to  it.  The  man  who  is  skillful  in  handling  it  gets 
a  hearing.  Works  like  that  of  Prof.  Drummond,  "Natural 
Law  in  the  Spiritual  World,"  secure  an  attention  somewhat 
disproportionate  to  their  real  merits,  perhaps,  because  the 
use  of  analogy  is  so  attractive.  And  it  is  rather  surprising 
that  a  method  of  presenting  the  truth  which  is  preeminently 
a  New  Testament  method,  an  almost  distinguishing  pecu- 
liaritv  of  the  form  in  which  Christian  revelation  appears, 
a  inethod  that  makes  Christ  quite  unique  as  a  teacher  of 
religion,  should  not  be  more  generally  cultivated  in  the 
pulpit.  A  free  use  of  analogy,  both  of  the  illustrative 
and  the  augmentative  sort,  would  be  a  very  effective  method 
of  conveying  Christian  trutli.  Argument  as  a  method  of 
didactic  development  calls  for  brief  consideration.  Its  im- 
portance for  the  work  of  the  pulpit  has  doubtless  been 
overestimated.  The  object  of  a  sermon  is  the  discussion 
of  truth  with  reference  to  practical  results.  All  teaching, 
therefore,  should  have  some  of  the  elements  of  persuasion. 
It  is  the  object  of  a  convincing  discussion  that  it  should  be 
made  a  persuasive  discussion.  In  fact  a  truly  convincing 
statement  is  in  an  imj)ortant  sense  a  truly  persuasive  state- 
ment and  argument  is  not  always  necessary  to  make  a 
statement  convincing.  Most  Biblical  truths  are  hardly 
adapted   to  elaborate   argument.     Clear   statement   may   be 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  355 

a  substitute.  The  most  convincing  preaching  is  often  sim- 
ply affirmatory  of  what  is  assumed,  and  may  well  be  as- 
sumed, to  be  generally  recognized  as  true.  It  is  an  appeal 
to  what  is  common,  to  common  sense,  common  conscience, 
common  sentiment,  common  observation  and  experience. 
It  may  be  a  statement  of  fact  or  a  statement  of  principle. 
Whatever  it  be,  the  assumption  is  that  the  truth  of  what  is 
af^rmed  may  somehow  be  recognized  without  being  scienti- 
fically demonstrated.  It  may  take  the  form  of  exposition 
or  of  illustration  or  of  inference  as  well  as  of  argument. 
After  all  but  relatively  few  are  convinced  of  religious  truth 
by  sheer  argument.  Belief  is  the  product  of  a  great  variety 
of  influences.  The  example  of  Christ  and  of  his  Apostles 
may  be  noted  here.  Christianity  was  not  propagated  by 
logical  argument.  It  refused  to  avail  itself  of  such  methods. 
The  arguments  of  Christ,  so  far  as  we  may  speak  of  his 
teaching  as  argument  at  all,  are  not  an  attempt  at  demon- 
stration. Of  course,  they  furnish  reasons  for  accepting  the 
truth,  and  so  far  forth  they  are  proofs.  But  they  are  not 
attempts  at  demonstration.  So  with  the  teaching  of  the 
Apostles.  They  speak  as  by  moral  and  religious  authority. 
Their  arguments  are  of  the  popular,  ad  hominem  sort.  They 
assume  not  only  a  common  sense,  or  a  common  capacity 
of  mental  judgement,  but  capacity  of  imagination  of  feeling 
and  of  moral  and  spiritual  conviction.  They  assume  a 
considerable  measure  of  common  experience  with  life,  of  com- 
mon moral  and  religious  training  and  of  general  prepara- 
tion to  receive  the  truth,  when  once  it  is  rightly  presented. 
The  object  is  to  get  at  the  inner  life,  to  intensify  moral  and 
religious  conviction,  to  remove  difficulties  by  a  clear,  sug- 
gestive and  persuasive  presentation  of  the  truth.  It  is  not 
to  push  the  truth  upon  the  mind  by  processes  of  logical 
proof.  The  presentation  is  largely  exposition  in  popular 
form.     The  parable,  as  used  by  our  Lord,  is  an  expository 


356  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

method.  It  is  exposition  by  illustration.  It  is  also  a  sort 
of  argument.  As  it  interprets  it  presents  reasons  for  belief. 
It  reasons  by  exposition.  Paul  reasons  from  popular  an- 
alogies. Argumentative  preaching  is  relatively  modem. 
It  was  not,  in  the  scientific  sense,  known  to  the  primitive 
church.  Scholasticism  did  not  originate  it,  but  it  fixed  it. 
This  involved,  if  not  a  false,  an  extreme  conception  of  the 
needs  of  the  pulpit.  Doubtless  it  did  its  work  after  a 
fashion.  But  it  is  past.  Biblical  preaching  corrects  the 
extremes  of  the  dialectical  methods  on  the  one  side  and 
of  the  hortatory  or  non-discussional  method  on  the  other 
side.  It  unites  in  due  proportion  the  rational  and  the  ethical 
and  spiritual.  The  chief  aim  is  to  make  Christianity  seem 
reasonable  and  natural  in  the  sense  of  reasonable,  and 
this  may  be  done  without  formal  argument.  It  is  hardly 
worth  while  to  discuss  the  argumentative  method  of  develop- 
ment. 

And  yet  a  few  words  may  be  desirable.  There  are  three 
points  of  view  from  vv'hich  we  may  look  at  pulpit  argument, 
that  of  quality,  order  and  tone. 

As  regards  the  quality  of  homiletic  argument,  it  is  de- 
manded first  of  all  that  it  be  substantial  and  cogent.  "A 
lame  and  impotent  conclusion"  is  Hkely  to  involve  a 
lame  and  impotent  process  of  reasoning,  which  is  a  dis- 
credit to  the  preacher.  If  one  undertakes  a  line  of  rea- 
soning, he  should  make  it  thorough.  A  preacher  loses 
influence  by  an  ineffectual  attempt  at  it.  The  weakness  of 
his  argument  is  charged  either  to  his  own  intellectual  incom- 
petency or  to  the  weakness  of  his  case,  and  in  either  event 
he  is  discredited,  in  the  one  case  personally,  in  the  other  pro- 
fessionally. Processes  of  reasoning  should  also  be  adapted 
to  the  capacities  of  one's  audience.  A  line  of  reasoning 
that  will  satisfy  one  class  of  people  may  not  satisfy  another. 
What  is  sufficient    for  an  untrained    mind  will  not    satisfy 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  357 

the  trained  mind.  What  convinces  the  man  of  easy  belief, 
may  not  convince  the  sceptic.  What  reaches  a  candid 
mind  may  not  touch  a  prejudiced  mind.  What  comes  home 
at  once  to  a  man  of  imaginative  and  emotional  tempera- 
ment may  find  no  response  from  a  hard-headed  logician. 
Reasoning  from  the  Scriptures  may  have  v^eight  with  a 
Christian  congregation,  but  to  rely  wholly  upon  such  rea- 
soning would  be  inadequate  to  its  needs,  and  much  more  in- 
adequate to  the  demands  of  an  unbelieving  congregation. 
The  ordinary  hearer  is  impressed  by  analogical  reason- 
ing. But  such  reasoning  is  chiefly  of  negative  value.  It 
does  not  satisfy  all  the  demands  of  the  mind  and  much  of  it 
is  wholly  inconclusive.  Argument  from  facts  has  increas- 
ing weight.  It  is  a  form  of  appeal  to  experience.  Christ 
made  his  appeal  to  facts.  He  claimed  that  there  were 
certain  patent  facts  that  attested  his  messianic  claims.  Paul 
defended  his  "Gospel"  by  an  appeal  to  alleged  facts,  the 
facts  of  Christ's  resurrection  and  manifestation  to  him. 
An  appeal  to  common-sense  judgment  and  to  common  or 
personal  moral  sense,  or  to  the  best  witnessing  of  religious 
feeling  is  generally  successful  with  those  who  have  been 
morally  and  religiously  trained.  But  others  may  demand  the 
logical  forms  of  premise,  proof  and  conclusion. 

As  regards  the  structure  or  arrangement  of  argument, 
the  chief  demand  is  that  it  shall  be  so  ordered  as  to  be 
readily  apprehensible.  The  order  will  depend  on  the  sort 
of  argument.  In  moral  reasoning  that  seeks  a  strong  final 
impression  the  cumulative  process  is  necessary.  The  weight- 
iest argument  in  the  line  comes  last  for  the  reason  that  the 
last  word  is  supposed  to  be  the  most  weighty  and  impress- 
ive and  that  it  gathers  unto  itself  and  supports  and  gets  sup- 
port from  all  that  precedes.  Simplicity  of  order  and  of 
statement  is  another  requisite.  Involved,  laborious,  long- 
drawn  processes  of  reasoning  are  outlawed  in  our  day  be- 


358  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

cause  they  are  intolerably  tedious.  In  days  when  peo- 
ple had  more  leisure  and  more  patience  they  would  tolerate 
them  and  seemed  to  thrive  upon  them.  But  no  one  follows 
them  now  and  their  value  at  any  time  is  questionable.  The 
weight  of  a  man's  arguments  is  of  more  importance  than 
the  number. 

With  respect  to  the  tone  of  one's  reasoning,  the  primal 
requisite  is  candor.  No  preacher  who  is  a  special  pleader 
or  who  shuffles  or  evades  difficulties,  can  hold  the  confidence 
of  right-minded  people.  Candor  is  of  special  importance  in 
the  discussion  of  religious  problems  and  above  all  in  the 
mse  of  Scripture  arguments.  Unfair  reasoning  is  heavily 
discounted.  There  is  a  large  element  of  personal  faith  in 
people's  acceptance  of  a  candid  man's  reasonings.  Assent 
is  often  secured  quite  as  much  by  confidence  in  the  candor 
of  the  man  as  by  the  cogency  of  his  arguments.  With 
candor  should  be  associated  positiveness  and  strength  of 
conviction.  The  judicial,  the  positive  and  candid  attitude 
of  mind  seeks  the  truth  for  its  own  sake  or  as  a  positive 
moral  good.  The  apologetic  is  therefore  more  satisfactory 
than  the  polemic  method.  Polemic  discussion  easily  de- 
generates into  partisanship,  into  uncandidness  and  unfair- 
ness and  may  readily  become  personal  and  bitter.  The 
fighting  pulpiteer  seeks  a  personal  or  partisan  advantage, 
rather  than  the  liberation  of  truth  and  the  conquest  of 
error. 

(3)  Some  of  the  sources  of  the  didactic  development 
may  well  be  considered.  The  choice  of  topics  will  measur- 
ably condition  the  thought-material  of  the  development. 
But  it  is  also  a  specific  question  for  the  development  itself. 
There  are  general  sources  upon  which  the  preacher  relies 
for  his  material  of  thought  and  of  which  he  avails  himself 
in  the  use  of  various  expository  or  didactic  methods.  All 
the  material  of  one's  education  and  culture  is,  of  course, 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  359 

a  source  from  which  one  continually  draws.     But  just  here 
we  deal  with  some  of  the  specific  sources. 

The  Scriptures  are  one  of  these  sources.  We  use  the 
Bible,  not  only  as  the  basis  for  our  themes  and  as  the 
basis  for  topics,  as  in  the  textual  method,  but  in  the  process 
of  development  as  well.  We  make  an  immediate  use  of  it 
and  in  ways  other  than  as  proof-texts.  It  is  difficult  to  use 
detached  proof-texts  wisely.  A  false  or  inadequate  inter- 
pretation is  almost  inevitable.  For  this  reason  they  are 
generally  avoided  in  our  day.  But  Scripture  material  may 
be  successfully  used  in  a  great  variety  of  ways,  e.  g.,  by  citing 
its  biographical  and  historical  material  illustratively,  by 
citing  its  acknowledged  general  truths  and  principles,  by 
citations  and  the  use  of  its  rhetorical  and  poetic  diction. 
If  preachers  were  more  familiar  with  their  English  Bibles, 
they  would  probably  make  more  copious  use  of  it.  It  is 
a  source  of  very  instructive  and  interesting  material.  Scotch 
and  Welsh  preachers  make  abundant  use  of  it  and  they 
are  for  this  reason  among  the  most  interesting  and  edifying 
of  preachers.  The  value  of  such  use  in  giving  the  people  an 
acquaintance  with  the  Bible  can  not  be  over-estimated.  We 
appeal  to  the  Bible  primarily  because  we  assume  that  it 
bears  the  authority  of  revelation.  It  presupposes  also  a 
response  in  our  moral  and  religious  natures.  On  this  basis 
we  use  it  even  in  speaking  to  those  who  are  not  professedly 
Christians,  and  in  fact  even  to  those  who  may  deny  the 
truth  and  authority  of  revelation.  But  its  most  successful 
use,  of  course,  presupposes  Christian  experience,  i.  e.,  the 
witness  of  the  inner  life  and  of  the  teaching  Spirit  answering 
to  the  witness  of  Scriptures  without.  To  the  response  of  native 
intelligence,  conviction,  feeling,  is  added  the  response  of 
Christian  faith.  It  assumes  that  Christian  truth  is  verifi- 
able in  Christian  experience.  Hence,  of  course.  Biblical 
material  will  have  greatest  weight  with  the   Christian  sec- 


36o  THE   WORK    OF    THE    PREACHER 

tion  of  the  congregation,  and  it  is  most  appropriate  in 
pastoral  preaching  in  connection  with  the  worship  of  a 
Christian  assembly.  But  it  does  not  always  assume  the 
authority  of  revelation.  The  Bible  is  a  body  of  human 
literature  as  well  as  a  record  of  divine  revelation.  It  is 
a  treasure-house  of  human  experiences  as  well  as  of  heavenly 
teachings.  It  is  a  source  of  illustration  as  well  as  of  au- 
thority, a  store-house  of  suggestion  as  well  as  of  proof.  It 
speaks  to  the  imagination,  the  sentiments,  the  feelings  as 
well  as  to  the  mind  and  the  conscience,  and  in  the  use  of 
it  as  such  the  preacher  may  be  eminently  instructive  as  well 
as  quickening.  We  use  the  Bible  as  a  literary  product.  It 
is  a  source  of  fresh,  attractive  material  that  may  be  used 
suggestively  as  well  as  argumentatively  and  this  is  a  didac- 
tic use.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  use  of  Scriptures  by 
Christ  and  the  New  Testament  writers  as  a  direct  source 
of  proof  in  argument,  is  relatively  infrequent.  The  more 
common  use  is  in  the  way  of  fruitful  suggestion.  It  fur- 
nishes analogies  or  pertinent  inferential  intimations  in  var- 
ious forms  that  put  the  truth  in  stronger  light  and  give 
it  fresh  attractiveness  and  impressiveness.  Most  of  our 
didactic  use  of  the  Bible  is  literary  in  its  character.  It  is  for 
illustration   rather   than  argument. 

History  is  another  source.  History  belongs  to  the  general 
realm  of  human  experience,  and  an  appeal  to  it  is  one  form 
of  the  appeal  to  experience,  but  it  may  well  have  distinct 
consideration.  Historic  facts  greatly  enrich  a  man's  preach- 
ing. Biblical  history  is  illustrative  of  wide-reaching  ethico- 
rcligious  principles.  That  so  much  of  the  old  Testament 
is  historical,  or  has  a  historic  back-ground,  explains  why 
preaching  of  the  right  sort  from  it  is  so  interesting.  But 
secular  history  as  well  is  of  great  value  to  the  preacher. 
The  historical  sermon  itself  is  of  great  interest  and  value. 
But  the  use  of  historic  material  for  purposes  of  illustration 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  361 

or  of  discussion  or  of  argument  in  the  development  of  any 
type  of  sermon  is  of  equal  interest  and  value.  Preachers 
might  well  utilize  more  abundantly  as  material  for  illustra- 
tion and  exposition  their  reading  and  study  of  history. 

The  impression  which  Prof.  Drummond's  "Natural  Law 
in  the  Spiritual  World/'  and  which  the  skillful  use  by 
preachers  of  scientific  facts,  has  made  upon  the  religious 
public  may  well  suggest  the  fruitfulness  of  the  realm  of 
the  physical  sciences  for  the  work  of  preaching.  The  anal- 
ogies which  these  sciences  suggest  may  have  an  ar- 
gumentative significance  for  the  sphere  of  religion,  and 
these  facts  are  of  great  and  varied  illustrative  worth.  If 
preachers  would  avail  themselves  more  fully  of  their  knowl- 
edge of  science,  or  would  seek  a  fuller  knowledge  of  it, 
in  the  interest  of  their  work,  they  might  make  religion 
seem  more  real  to  men. 

So-called  secular  literature  is  a  much  more  common  source 
for  the  material  of  preaching  than  was  formerly  the  case. 
The  best  preachers  of  our  day  are  familiar  with  it  and  use 
it  with  great  freedom.  Literature,  and  one  might  add  art, 
are  the  flower  of  all  best  culture,  and  he  who  is  familiar 
with  them  is  in  touch  with  what  is  best  in  his  time.  How 
greatly  Robertson's  acquaintance  with  Wordsworth  and  Ten- 
nyson, and  with  literature  in  general,  English  and  other,  and 
with  the  products  of  Christian  art  enriched  his  preaching! 
Dramatic  and  romantic  literature  are  especially  fruitful 
sources.  Most  of  the  notable  preachers  of  our  day  are 
familiar  with  the  classic  Greek  and  English  drama,  and  there 
are  but  few  preachers  of  any  grade  that  neglect  the  modern 
novel. 

Experience,  in  the  broader  or  in  the  closer  sense,  is  one 
of  the  most  common  sources  of  appeal.  It  may  be  what  we  call 
the  common  experience,  or  the  experience  of  particular  men 
or  one's  own  experience.     It  is  a  kind  of    appeal  to    facts, 


362  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

or  what  is  assumed  to  be  facts.  It  involves  an  appeal  to 
example  or  to  concrete  instances  as  illustrating  a  statement 
of  fact  or  principle.  The  attractiveness,  impressiveness 
and  searchingness  of  the  best  type  of  modern  preaching 
are  conditioned  by  such  appeal.  Personal  experience 
may  furnish  material  for  instructive  as  well  as  persuasive 
preaching.  Wisely  handled,  and  it  needs  most  judicious 
use,  it  may  become  a  valuable  didactic  source.  Paul's  per- 
sonal experiences  always  had  great  weight  with  him  in  his 
proclamation  of  his  Gentile  Gospel,  and  they  had  corres- 
ponding weight  with  others.  This  is  what  makes  the 
Corinthian,  Galatian  and  Philippian  letters  so  profoundly 
interesting  and  impressive.  I  wonder  if  we  adequately 
understand  how  potent  in  the  furtherance  of  Pauline  Christi- 
anity the  story  of  Paul's  life  and  personal  experiences  was? 
We  talk  about  the  force  of  Paul's  personality.  We  mean 
by  it,  or  should  if  we  speak  understandingly,  the  power  of 
his  personal  experiences.  They  are  experiences  that  are 
made  significant  by  the  personal  force  of  the  man,  but  it 
was  precisely  these  experiences  that  evoked  the  power  that 
was  in  him.  The  experiences  involved  in  his  conversion  were 
in  fact  the  turning-point  in  the  fortune  of  early  Qiristianity. 
Personal  experience  was  a  most  potent  factor  in  the  early, 
successful  proclamation  in  general  of  the  Gospel  and  it 
was  the  awakening  of  new  personal  religious  experience, 
rather  than  its  logical  defenses,  that  saved  the  Christianity 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  weight  of  the  experience 
will  of  course,  depend  largely  on  the  weight  of  the  man, 
and  the  effectiveness  of  its  use  in  preaching  will  depend 
on  its  importance  and  on  what  it  illustrates.  It  must  have 
weight  in  order  to  sanction  its  introduction  into  the  pul|)it. 
Otherwise  it  will  degenerate  into  frivolity  or  cant,  and  this 
will  always  bring  a  reaction  against  it.  It  has  doubtless 
been   overworked  in   some  quarters.     But  judiciously  used 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  363 

it  will  not  fail  of  effectiveness.  It  is  the  weight  of  the  man 
and  the  worth  of  what  he  has  personally  known  and  felt 
that  will  condition  right  use.  It  may  be  the  experience  of 
other  men.  We  quote  others'  experiences  because  they  in- 
terst  us,  and  because  we  know  that  they  will  interest  our 
hearers,  because  also  they  have  an  illustrative  value.  Stories 
may  have  an  illustrative  and  so  a  didactic  value.  They  are 
an  appeal  to  fact  as  illustrative  of  principles.  And  this 
should  fix  their  limits.  An  excess  of  story  telling  is  like 
an  excess  in  the  use  of  figurative  language.  We  lose  sight 
of  the  thing  illustrated  and  an  impression  of  intellectual 
not  to  say  moral  weakness  and  frivolity  is  left  with  us.  It 
may  be  an  appeal  to  common  or  general  experience.  Christ 
appealed  to  man's  judgments  as  based  on  common  ex- 
perience. The  parables  furnish  such  an  appeal.  Recall 
his  appeal  on  the  Sabbath  question ;  which  one  of  you 
does  not  in  fact  do  the  like  of  this  very  thing  that  I  am 
now  doing,  only  in  a  lower  realm?  It  is  an  appeal  to  what 
we  call  common  sense,  observation  and  experience.  It 
pre-supposes  familiarity  with  life  and  knowledge  of  the  ways 
of  men.  Preaching  should  deal  copiously  with  actual  life. 
Life  furnishes  the  richest  sort  of  material.  A  knowledge 
of  men  and  of  the  world  at  large  is  in  increasing  demand. 
A  study  of  human  life  as  illustrative  of  the  great  truths  and 
principles  of  religion  lies  behind  the  best  preaching  of 
our  day  and  it  is  this  largely  that  makes  religion  seem  so 
much  more  natural  and  human.  The  study  of  dramatic  liter- 
ature as  a  portraiture  of  human  life,  has  chief  value  just  here 
for  the  pulpit. 

2.  The  persuasive,  or,  more  comprehensively,  the  prac- 
tical development.  The  word  practical  suggests  an  effort 
to  impress  the  conscience,  and  to  secure  action,  rather  than 
to  secure  a  strong  mental  impression.  And  the  word  per- 
suasion suggests  an  appeal  predominately  to  the  imagina- 


364  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

tion,  to  the  emotions,  and  to  the  moral  and  religious  sen- 
timents. A  full  discussion  of  the  art  and  methods  of  per- 
suasion is  not  called  for  just  here.  It  is  sufficient,  in  general, 
to  say  that  all  persuasive  methods  are  based  on  the  assump- 
tion and  presuppose  that  the  object  is  first  of  all  appre- 
hensible. It  is,  therefore,  supplemental  to  the  expository- 
method,  or  assumes  the  work  of  interpretation  as  already 
adequately  accomplished.  But  the  thing  that  is  apprehen- 
sible and  adequately  known  must  next  be  made  to  seem  de- 
sirable. Persuasion  is,  therefore,  an  eflfort  to  make  the 
truth  attractive.  But  it  cannot  be  made  attractive  unless 
it  is  seen  and  known  to  be  available.  To  show  that  the 
object  presented  is  within  reach  is  an  important  element 
in  persuasion.  But  the  crown  point  in  the  process  of  pre- 
senting the  apprehcnsibleness,  the  desirableness,  and  the 
availableness  of  the  object,  is  the  enforcement  of  personal 
obligation  with  respect  to  it.  Hence  it  concentrates  upon 
the  conscience  and  will.  But  with  respect  to  persuasive 
methods,  the  following  suggestions  are  all  that  seem 
necessary. 

(i)  The  didactic  development  may  become  persuasive 
and  in  the  best  sense  practical  by  appropriate  handling,  and 
such  handling  presupposes  an  efTort  to  interpret  the  truth 
with  supreme  reference  to  moral  and  religious  interests. 
Instruction  may  be  so  combined  with  definite,  direct,  moral 
and  religious  inculcation  that  it  may  become  persuasively 
and  practically  impressive.  And  this  is  the  best  type  of 
instructive  preaching.  By  the  use  of  the  forms  of  thought 
and  speech  that  aj^peal  to  the  imagination  and  the  emo- 
tions one  may  so  handle  his  expository  matter  as  to  reach 
persuasively  the  heart  and  the  will  of  the  hearer.  All  the 
expository  methods,  to  which  attention  has  been  directed, 
may  become  in  skillful  hands,  practically  effective.  A 
study  of  the  didactic  methods  of  popular  and  skillful  preachers 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  365 

like  Henry  Ward  Beecher  or  Phillips  Brooks,  or  Horace 
Bushnell,  not  to  name  more  recent  preachers,  would  enable 
one  to  get  an  insight  into  the  secret  of  persuasive  teach- 
ing. This  is  better  than  an  abstract  discussion  of  the  prob- 
lem. Here  one  would  find  concrete  illustrations  of  just 
what  one  needs  to  cultivate.  But  such  study  would  be  of 
value  only  in  connection  with  a  proper  culture  of  the  im- 
agination and  sentiments  and  feelings,  and  by  a  personal 
vital  appropriation  of  the  truth  as  related  to  the  practical 
needs  of  men.  With  such  study  all  the  sources  of  the 
didactic  development  above  named,  Scripture,  history, 
science,  literature,  experience,  as  well  as  all  the  methods 
suggested,  may  become  tributary  to  practical  impression.  A 
concrete  handling  of  the  material  of  thought  from  any 
source  in  skillful  hands  becomes  cogent. 

(2)  More  particularly  an  illustrative  use  of  material  be- 
comes practically  effective.  The  object  of  illustration  is, 
indeed,  to  make  the  truth  more  intelligible,  i.  c,  as  the  word 
suggests,  to  throw  light  upon  it.  Hence  all  illustration 
may  have  didactic  value.  But  it  also  aims  at  impressing 
the  imagination.  Some  preachers  seem  to  have  a  native 
gift  for  illustrative  speech.  But,  after  all,  what  we  often 
call  a  gift  may  be  the  product  rather  of  assiduous  culture. 
This  gift,  although  somewhat  meagre,  may  be  success- 
fully trained.  Many  preachers,  like  Dr.  Thomas  Guthrie, 
have  shown  but  little  indication  of  the  gift  in  early  pro- 
fessional years. 

(3)  A  pictorial  style  furthers  a  practical  in  so  far  as  it 
is  a  persuasive  and  an  attractive  style  of  preaching.  The 
ordinary  pulpit  language  of  many  preachers,  e.  g.,  like  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  or  Dr.  Joseph  Parker,  consists  in  word 
pictures.  A  study  of  Old  Testament  diction,  or  of  poetry 
of  any  sort,  becomes  tributary  to  this  style.  An  analytic 
study  of  figurative  language  would  not  be  without  value. 


366  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

A  mastery  of  grammatical,  as  well  as  verbal  figures,  may 
further  a  dramatic  intensity  of  style.  The  cultivation  of 
the  descriptive  style  would  make  preaching  more  persua- 
sive. Preachers  of  a  graphic,  dramatic  style  do  much  to- 
wards neutralizing  the  defects  of  a  barren  worship.  The 
Bible  abounds  in  material  that  is  expressed  in  descriptive, 
pictorial  form,  that  invites  the  study  of  the  preacher. 

(4)  The  use  of  anecdotes,  proverbs  and  citations,  en- 
riches preaching  and  becomes  conducive  to  impressiveness. 
Evangelists  make  abundant  use  of  anecdotes.  Luther  dealt 
out  proverbs  from  the  pulpit  with  lavish  hand,  and  ad- 
vocated their  use  particularly  in  preaching  to  uninstructed 
people.  They  rivet  attention  and  abide,  and  what  they 
illustrate  is  thus  more  likely  to  abide  with  them.  Quota- 
tion is,  within  limits,  a  valuable  rhetorical  device.  The 
idea  of  authority  is  at  the  bottom  of  it.  One  adds  weight 
to  one's  own  thought  or  opinion  or  sentiment  by  quoting 
from  those  whose  names  are  known  and  have  weight  in 
any  department  of  knowledge  or  literature.  It  is  an  element 
of  persuasion.  To  the  weight  or  the  impressiveness  of  the 
though.t,  or  experience,  is  added  the  weight  of  the  name. 
If  the  literary  form  of  the  citation  is  peculiarly  impressive 
and  pertinent  it  secures  additional  value.  It  has  additional 
weight  in  the  realm  of  sentiment  and  feeling. 

Citations  of  poetry,  which  in  a  prose  product  are  nat- 
urally somewhat  restricted  and  which  not  infrequently  would 
better  be  presented  in  paraphrase,  have  rhetorical  value 
because  of  their  poetic  suggestiveness  of  thought,  and  im- 
pressiveness of  artistic  form,  and  may  be  made  much  more 
pertinent  to  the  tone  and  sentiment  of  the  sermon  than 
prose  citations.  Brief  fragments  of  poetic  citation  are  pref- 
erable to  long  and  continuous  citation.  Such  may  easily 
become  tedious  and  in  the  end  lessen  rather  than  intensify 
impression.     If  one  will   have   such   a  quotation   it  should 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  367 

close  the  sermon.  At  the  beginning  or  in  the  middle,  it 
is  very  objectionable.  But  the  shorter  and  the  more  per- 
tinent the  better. 

II.     Production  of  Material 

Planning  and  producing  may  be  quite  or  nearly  simul- 
taneous. Yet  they  may  be  to  a  large  extent  separable.  After 
planning,  producing  and  expanding  are  generally  necess- 
sary.  Men  differ  greatly  in  their  productive  power.  Some 
generate  thought  with  notable  facility,  but  plan  slowly  and 
laboriously.  Others  plan  more  easily  than  they  produce. 
The  easy  producer  may  easily  run  into  disorder  and  super- 
ficiality. On  the  other  hand  the  sketching  of  outhnes 
may  become  a  sort  of  knack.  It  is  not  at  all  difficult  even 
for  very  superficial  preachers  to  acquire  facility  in  the  plan- 
ning of  sermons.  The  outcome  of  such  facility  may  be 
poverty  of  material.  The  sermon  may  be  all  skeleton.  A 
proper  regard  for  both  substance  and  form  is  needed.  Pro- 
duction, however,  is  much  easier  for  any  man,  whatever 
his  facility  or  lack  of  facility  may  be,  in  proportion  as  the 
preliminary  work  has  been  well  done.  If  one  gets  hold 
of  his  theme  and  lets  it  get  hold  of  him,  lets  it  open  itself 
out  clearly  before  him,  if  he  makes  himself  familiar  with  the 
road  over  which  he  is  traveling,  it  should  not  take  him  long 
to  make  the  journey.  It  should  not  in  general  be  at  the 
longest  more  than  a  three  days'  journey.  But  production  of 
the  right  sort  is  no  easy  task  for  any  man,  however  gifted. 
The  problem  of  production  is  part  of  the  larger  problem 
of  general  education  and  culture,  of  training  in  professional 
experience  and  of  the  larger  pedagogy  of  life.  And  this 
is  far  more  than  a  homiletic  problem.  It  can  not,  therefore, 
be  satisfactorily  treated  merely  as  such.  But  there  are  con- 
siderations bearing  upon  this  general  question  of  training 
and  upon  the  more  specific  problem  of  homiletic  produc- 


368  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

tion  with  which  homiletics  may  deal.  These  considera- 
tions have  a  direct  or  indirect,  an  immediate  or  remote 
bearing  upon  the  problem  before  us.  Let  us  look  at  some 
of  them. 

I.  I  suggest  first  the  need  of  a  habit  of  mental  con- 
centration upon  the  actual  work  of  sermon  production. 
Such  concentration,  within  the  limits  of  a  proper  range  in 
general  culture,  is  necessary  to  eflfectiveness  in  production 
and  expansion.  No  preacher  should  ever  be  careless  about 
the  specific  task  of  sermon  preparation.  Without  care  and 
concentration,  his  work  will  lack  definiteness  of  aim  and  the 
intensity,  thoroughness  and  effectiveness  that  are  condi- 
tioned by  them.  We  need  the  mental  and  the  moral  dis- 
cipline of  what  Emerson  calls  "the  stated  task,"  the  lack 
of  which  in  his  own  experience  he  lamented.  A  man  who 
does  not  feel  the  pressure  of  professional  duty  may  easily 
lose  intellectual  as  well  as  moral  stamina.  A  desultory  habit 
of  life  is  a  fruitful  source  of  frivolity,  superficiality  and 
mental  and  moral  incompetency.  The  freedom  of  minis- 
terial Hfe  from  the  stern  exactions  of  stated  hours  of  work 
endangers  the  preacher  of  falling  into  such  a  habit.  It  de- 
mands moral  resolution  to  resist  the  danger.  Every  ser- 
mon should  aim  at  a  definite,  strong,  impression.  It  should 
represent,  not  only  a  general  and  comprehensive,  but  a 
specific  homilelic  aim.  The  preacher  should  do  his  best, 
within  the  given  limits,  in  every  sermon.  That  counsel 
may  be  given  with  all  possible  emphasis.  The  sermon  should 
stand  for  a  moral  achievement,  and  it  can  not  be  moral 
achievement  if  it  be  not  a  respectable  mental  achievement. 
It  is  a  wholesome  thing  for  a  man  to  grapple  vigorously 
with  a  definite  mental  and  moral  task.  "Invention"  is  the 
rhetorical  term  for  production.  It  suggests  that  thought 
is  a  discovery.  It  suggests  a  mental  search.  Men  diflfer, 
as    already    suggested,    in    their    inventive    and    productive 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  369 

powers,  but  no  one  produces  without  effort.  Effort,  how- 
ever, is  easier  or  more  difficult  according  to  the  conditions 
under  which  the  effort  is  made.  Such  favorable  conditions 
as  are  possible  should  be  secured.  Let  me  venture  to  sug- 
gest some  of  them. 

(i)     Methods  of  work  suited  to  one's  need.     No  one  can 
work  freely  and  productively  who  works  unnaturally.    Effort 
will  be  unnatural  that  counterworks  one's  native  tendencies 
and  acquired  habits.     One  must  consider  his  habits  as  well 
as   tendencies,    for   habit   is    second   nature.     Men   naturally 
as  well  as  habitually  work  in  different  ways.     One  man  needs 
a  good  deal  of  time  for  preparation.     He  must  work  slowly 
and  with  deliberation  or  not  effectively.    Such  a  man  should 
never  permit    himself  to    be    pushed    into  a    corner,^  if    he 
can  possibly  prevent  it.     Concentration  and  continuity  are^ 
necessary   for   most   men.     They   are   especially   important 
for  the  man  who   must  work   slowly  and  deliberately.     If 
the  current  of  thought  is  interrupted,  it  is  difficult  to  re- 
establish it.     Such  a  one  should  not  permit  himself,  without 
weighty  reasons,  to  be  drawn  away  from  his  work.     One 
man  works  best  with  pen  in  hand,  and  in  entire  seclusion. 
It    is    an    unfortunate    necessity    for    any    preacher    that   he 
should  be  obliged  to  work  in  that  way.     But  some  of  our 
best  preachers  have  been  seemingly  shut  up  to  this  method. 
Such  a  man  should  plan  his  work  with  reference  to  his  ne- 
cessities.    Another  man  works  vigorously  while  in  contact 
with  his  fellow  men  in  the  parish  or  in  the  open  world  and 
in   hours   of   exercise.     It  is   a   very   desirable  habit   for   a 
hard-pressed  pastor,  and  such  a  one  should  make  the  most 
of  that  gift.     In  a  word,  then,  every  workman  should  find 
out  his  own  best  method  of  work,  should  find  out  just  how 
he   can  work  freely  and  productively,   and   effectively,  and 
should  adjust  his  work  to  his  real  needs.    I  say  "real  needs" 
for  after  all  one  may  possibly  train  himself  to  work  with 


370  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

a  fair  measure  of  freedom  under  difficulties  that  at  first 
might  seem  insurmountable.  And  it  must  be  said  that  a 
minister's  tasks  are  of  such  sort  that  he  will  be  obliged 
to  train  himself  to  work  under  difficulties.  But  despite 
these  limitations  every  man  has  his  own  personal  needs. 
They  are  the  result  of  constitution  and  temperament  as 
well  as  habit.  They  should  be  respected.  One  can  not  work 
successfully  under  constant  friction. 

(2)  Effort  to  be  at  one's  best  in  hours  of  prepara- 
tion. Perhaps  no  one  is  ever  in  just  the  same  condition 
(physically,  mentally  or  emotionally  on  two  different  oc- 
casions. We  are  subject  to  variant  moods.  Little  things 
affect  us.  It  is  surprising  how  little.  We  are  more  closely 
identified  with  the  world  in  which  we  live  and  our  moods 
are  more  dependent  upon  it  than  we  suspect.  These  variant 
moods  disclose  their  results  in  work  for  the  pulpit.  We 
detect  them  ourselves  in  different  parts  of  the  same  ser- 
mon or  in  the  sermon  as  a  whole,  and  if  we  fail  to  detect 
them  the  watchful  hearer  does  not.  The  preacher,  it  is 
evident,  was  not  at  his  best,  in  the  preparation  of  the 
entire  sermon.  The  same  text,  theme,  outline  will  yield 
a  different  product  on  two  different  occasions.  The  preacher 
is  in  a  different  condition  productively.  These  variations  of 
mood  are  measurably  unavoidable.  It  is  every  man's  prob- 
lem to  reduce  their  bad  results  to  a  minimum,  and  to  do  the 
best  he  can  under  existing  conditions.  They  are  partly  under 
control.  At  any  rate,  one  can  take  his  mood  into  account. 
One  should  not  force  himself  to  work  when  at  his  worst. 
But  one  can  do  more  and  better  than  this.  By  good 
physical  habits,  proper  habits  of  study  and  life  in  general, 
proper  choice  of  hours  of  work  and  methods  of  work,  one 
may  keep  one's  self  very  nearly  at  one's  best  for  hours 
of  preparation. 

(3)  Tlioroughness    in   the    preliminary   work.      Without 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  371 

this  one  will  find  himself  obliged,  in  the  work  of  prepara- 
tion, to  pause  and  make  needed  corrections  in  his  scheme 
of  thought.  He  may  find  it  necessary  to  reflect  further 
upon  his  text  and  theme  and  to  retrace  his  ground  for  the 
purpose  in  fact  of  securing  the  mental  guidance  and  quick- 
ening which  he  should  have  already  secured.  If  the  ground 
IS  thoroughly  gone  over  at  the  outset  the  text  and  theme  will 
constantly  disclose  their  treasures  through  the  medium 
of  the  plan.  One  will  find  that  he  has  tapped  a  fountain 
that  will  flow  in  the  right  direction,  for  he  has  opened  a 
channel  for  it.  A  free  development  presupposes  such  a 
channel.  One  can  not  over-estimate  the  value  for  free  and 
fruitful  production  of  a  thorough  previous  study  of  the 
subject  in  its  topical  contents  and  relations.  New  treasures 
under  such  conditions  will  constantly  come  to  view  that 
otherwise  would  never  have  been  suggested. 

(4)  A  firm  grasp  of  the  proper  definite  object  of  the 
individual  sermon.  This  conditions  not  only  the  pertinent  qua- 
lity of  the  development  in  general,  but  also  facility  of  produc- 
tion in  detail.  Definiteness  of  aim  may  be  urged  for  the 
sake  of  impulse  in  production.  Every  man  who  knows  any- 
thing about  preaching  knows  this.  The  glow  of  enthusiasm 
that  is  gendered  by  the  stimulus  of  a  definite,  strong,  earnest 
and  loving  purpose  can  not  fail  greatly  to  facilitate  produc- 
tion. It  is  psychologically  impossible  that  it  should  be 
otherwise.  Moreover,  and  this  is  one  of  the  most  important 
practical  considerations,  the  material  of  thought  is  readily 
suggested  by  the  concrete,  practical  relations  of  the  ob- 
jects that  fall  within  the  compass  of  one's  homiletic  aim. 
The  practical  character  of  one's  preaching  is  a  condition 
of  fruitful  invention. 

(5)  The  presence  of  the  audience  with  the  preacher 
during  all  the  hours  of  preparation.  This  is  necessary 
not  only  to  the  production  of  a  sort  of  material  that  will  be 


372  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

adapted  to  the  needs  of  one's  hearers,  and  as  incentive 
to  the  production  of  a  vigor  and  directness  that  were 
otherwise  impossible,  but  it  will  inevitably  result  in 
a  general  quickening  of  all  the  productive  activities  of  the 
mind  because  they  are  inspired  by  the  moral  energies  and 
the  religious  sympathies  of  the  preacher.  The  ethical  and 
spiritual  conditions  of  "invention"  are  of  even  more  im- 
portance than  the  intellectual,  and  this  is  the  chief  con- 
tribution that  homiletics  is  likely  to  make  to  the  subject. 

2.  I  suggest  secondly  the  need  of  broad  and  generous 
as  well  as  close  mental  discipline  and  culture.  In  advocat- 
ing concentration  one  should  lay  proportionate  stress  upon 
breadth.  A  general  facility  in  the  handling  of  one's  facul- 
ties and  the  storing  of  mental  resources  condition  facility 
and  fertility  in  the  specific  work  of  sermon  preparation. 
The  end  of  all  mental  training  is  freedom  in  the  handling 
of  one's  powers.  Preaching  becomes  constantly  easier  in 
the  process  of  close,  clear,  comprehensive  and  vigorous 
thinking.  The  problem  of  the  individual  sermon  is  the 
problem  of  one's  general  training.  In  the  long  run  the 
preacher  will  fail  without  it.  The  sermon  will  always  be 
what  the  man  is.  In  this  matter  of  professional  training 
there  are  two  extremes.  One  extreme  would  concentrate 
all  effort  upon  the  specific  work  of  preaching,  upon  the  in- 
dividual sermon,  at  the  expense  of  the  general  training  of 
the  man.  The  other  would  cultivate  the  man  broadly  and 
comprehensively  at  the  expense  of  the  preacher  and  the  ser- 
mon. Both  aims  are  necessary.  Each  tends  to  limit  the  ex- 
treme defects  of  the  other.  Either  extreme  is  bad.  This 
combination  I  shall  discuss  farther  on.  Just  now  let  us 
consider  some  of  the  bad  results  of  a  narrow  homiletic 
training.  These  results  accentuate  the  demand  for  breath 
and  range  of  culture.  One  bad  result  is  poverty  of  mental 
resources.     No   profession   calls   for   so   liberal   and   com- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  373 

prehensive  a  culture  as  that  of  the  preacher.  Freshness 
and  variety  both  in  substance  and  form  are  impossible 
without  vigfor  and  fulness  of  mind.  A  man  of  narrow  cul- 
ture will  run  dry.  In  course  of  time  he  will  have  but  little 
to  say  and  that  little  will  become  monotonous.  Men  of  genius 
have,  indeed,  without  very  close  or  broad  training  disclosed 
remarkable  mental  productiveness  of  a  sort,  and  consider- 
able variety  of  rhetorical  form.  But  after  all  these  men  have 
managed  in  some  way  to  get  more  training  and  to  store 
larger  mental  resources  than  we  might  at  first  suppose.  In 
their  way  they  have  been  very  diligent  students.  They  have 
trained  the  gifts  nature  bestowed  upon  them  with  notable 
diligence,  and  made  the  most  of  themselves.  This  was  the  case 
with  Mr.  Spurgeon.  It  must  be  said  also  that  these  men, 
like  the  prophet  in  contact  with  the  widow's  cruse,  have  been 
able  to  make  the  resources  of  their  relatively  limited  treas- 
ury go  farther  and  yield  more  than  the  ordinary  man 
could  do.  But  among  preachers  of  only  average  ability  it  is 
the  scholarly  man  that  has  been  most  fertile,  and  this 
fertility  has  been  the  product  of  generous  and  vigorous  train- 
ing from  early  years.  Some  one  says  that  the  man  who 
knows  only  one  religion  can  not  know  that  adequately.  It 
is  more  apparent  in  our  day  than  ever  before  that  the  man 
who  in  any  line  knows  but  one  thing  and  is  trained  to  do 
only  one  thing  can  not  know  that  adequately  or  do  it  ef- 
fectively. A  mere  pulpiteer  can  not  be  the  best  sort  of 
preacher,  for  he  is  not  the  broadest,  best-trained  and  most 
productive  sort  of  man.  Men  of  mental  vigor  feel  the  nar- 
rowing efifect  of  a  small  range  of  professional  studies  and 
duties,  and  they  seek  to  broaden  themselves  by  contact  with 
men  and  with  the  sources  of  culture  outside  their  calling. 
Every  profession  has  its  mental  as  well  as  moral  limitations. 
Hence  the  necessity  of  getting  extra-professional  points  of 
view.  This  perhaps  is  preeminently  the  need  of  the  ministerial 


374  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

calling.  It  can  not  be  spccialistically  exclusive  and  be  suc- 
cessful in  the  largest  and  best  sense. 

Another  bad  result  of  narrow  professional  training  is  narrow 
sympathies.  Broadmindedness  is  necessary  to  large-hearted- 
ness  and  both  are  necessary  to  fulness  of  mental  life.  It 
is  true  that  a  man  may  have  a  thoroughly  trained  mind  whose 
heart  is  left  empty  and  sterile.  But  it  is  impossible  that 
such  a  man  should  have  even  the  intellectual  productive- 
ness that  a  preacher  needs.  The  best  kind  of  mental  train- 
ing, while  it  broadens,  enriches  and  stimulates  the  mind,  pro- 
portionately enriches  the  heart.  Out  of  such  soil  we  get  the 
best  sort  of  fertility.  The  sermon  should  come  out  of  a  full 
mind  and  a  full  heart,  and  generous  culture  is  necessary 
to  both.  A  preacher  should  grapple  with  hard  tasks.  It  is 
a  condition  of  mental  and  moral  manhood.  A  lazy  minister 
is  an  anomaly  and  a  disgrace  to  his  profession.  It  is  no 
wonder  that  Phillips  Brooks  denied  that  the  time  could 
ever  come  when  a  preacher,  whose  whole  soul  is  in  his  work 
and  who  is  constantly  training  himself  in  the  great  school 
of  life,  would  have  "nothing  to  say."  The  results  of  close 
and  generous  training  are  cumulative,  and  they  appear 
in  the  afluence  of  one's  preaching.  One  should  not  be 
satisfied  unless  he  sees  that  the  task  of  preaching  becomes 
easier,  and  the  quality  of  the  product  better.  One  who  is 
always  training  himself,  always  adding  to  his  stores  of 
knowledge  and  experience,  always  increasing  the  facility 
of  his  mental  action,  always  enriching  the  treasures  of  his 
heart,  who  has  learned  to  think  and  is  always  thinking,  has 
learned  to  love  and  is  always  loving,  will  always  have  some- 
thing to  say  that  is  worth  saying  and  worth  hearing. 

I  have  thus  advocated  the  need  of  mental  and  moral 
concentration  in  the  preacher's  task  and  the  proportionate 
need  of  mental  range.  It  is  bad  to  cultivate  breadth  at 
the  expense  of  concentration  and  thus  become  unprofitable 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  375 

in  the  ethical  and  spiritual  quality  of  one's  preaching.  But 
it  is  just  as  bad  to  cultivate  concentration  at  the  expense 
of  breadth  and  thus  impoverish  one's  homiletic  resources, 
"Ne  quid  nimis." 

3.  I  suggest  thirdly  and  in  line  with  what  has  already 
been  suggested,  the  need  of  cultivating  what  is  familiarly 
known  as  the  "homiletic  mind."  This  involves  a  combination 
of  range  and  concentration  in  one's  mental  and  moral  and 
religious  activities.  But  it  involves  something  more.  It 
is  more  than  generous,  thorough,  vigorous  training  in  gen- 
eral. It  is  more  than  concentration  upon  the  individual  ser- 
mon, in  particular.  The  effective  preacher  neither  trains 
and  cultivates  himself  without  reference  to  his  professional 
calling,  nor  does  he  train  and  cultivate  himself  with  reference 
to  his  calling  in  a  narrow  and  particularistic  way.  "The 
homiletic  mind"  is  the  mind  that  is  trained,  or  that  trains 
itself,  to  make  all  resources,  the  general  as  well  as  the 
specific,  tributary  to  the  work  of  preaching,  or  rather  to  the 
great  object  of  all  preaching,  the  winning  and  the  building 
of  men.  The  best  preachers  do  not  impoverish  themselves 
by  a  too  specific  professional  concentration,  nor  do  they 
enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of  their  profession.  The 
rather  do  they  enrich  their  professional  service  by  devoting 
all  the  wealth  of  their  resources  to  it.  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
was  a  most  notable  example  of  this  habit  of  mind  among 
modern  preachers  and  indeed  among  all  the  preachers  of 
the  church  in  every  age.  No  preacher  of  his  day,  none 
that  this  country  has  produced,  few  if  any  in  any  age, 
are  to  be  compared  with  him  in  this  capacity  for  accumulating 
vast  stores  of  material  from  all  departments  of  knowledge, 
ancient  and  modern,  particularly  modern,  and  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  this  under  the  dominance  of  the  didactic 
and  ethical  impulse  to  convert  this  material  into  homiletic 
pabulum  and  to  concentrate  it  upon  the  work  of  preaching. 


376  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

Few  preachers  were  ever  so  lavish  of  material,  and  few  ever 
wasted  less.  The  noteworthy  thing  is  not  merely  that 
he  was  a  man  of  transcendent  genius,  that  he  had  a  sur- 
passingly productive,  assimilative  and  intensely  active  mind, 
all  of  which  is  true,  but  that  preaching  was  with  him  the 
all-absorbing  interest,  the  passion  of  his  life.  He  saw 
and  felt  everything  in  its  relation  to  its  pulpit  use,  i.  e., 
to  its  ethical  and  religious  significance  and  value.  But  to  be 
more  specific,  what  does  the  cultivation  of  the  homiletic 
mind  involve?  Let  us  attempt  a  partial  analysis  of  it.  In 
addition  to  what  has  already  been  suggested  in  general, 
it  involves  the  following  particulars.  First  of  all  a  large 
conception  of  the  work  of  preaching.  He  who  has  such  con- 
ception will  see  that  it  demands  large  resources  to  do  the 
work  of  preaching  successfully,  and  such  a  one  will  be 
stimulated  to  the  acquisition  of  abundant  resources  in  this 
interest.  To  such  a  one,  nothing  that  can  be  converted  into 
material  for  the  pulpit  will  be  insignificant.  His  motto  will 
be;  "I  am  a  preacher,  and  I  regard  nothing  that  is  con- 
vertible into  pulpit  pabulum  as  foreign  to  me." 

And  all  this  will  involve  a  strong  professional  purpose 
in  general.  I  mean  a  dominating  purpose  to  make  the  ser- 
vice of  one's  professional  life  as  effective  as  possible.  Surely, 
no  man  who  underestimates  his  profession,  who  treats  the 
work  of  the  ministry  lightly  or  as  if  it  were  of  secondary 
or  subordinate  importance  will  ever  be  alert  to  crowd  every- 
thing into  its  service. 

A  compelling  didactic  impulse  is  essential,  i.  c,  an  im- 
pulse to  impart  to  others  the  truth  as  one  sees  it  and  feels 
it.  No  one  can  be  a  preacher  at  all,  much  less  a  pro- 
ductive preacher,  without  this.  It  is  a  necessary  incentive 
in  winning  from  all  sources  material  wherewith  to  illus- 
trate and  enforce  the  truth  one  seeks  to  impart.  The  mere 
investigator   is    not    a    preacher.        The    preacher    interprets 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  377 

and    imparts,    and    he    investigates    in    order    that    he    may 
interpret  and  impart. 

Allied  with  this  is  the  ethical  impulse.  This  is  not  iden- 
tical with  the  didactic  impulse  although  the  one  is  essential 
to  the  other  for  its  full  realization.  Every  man,  every  preacher 
especially,  needs  something  to  test  the  practical  significance 
and  worth  of  his  knowledge.  He  above  all  other  men 
needs  an  available  practical  knowledge  in  this  "workaday" 
world.  He  has  the  needed  test  in  his  ethical  purpose,  or 
rather  the  needed  motive  to  apply  the  test  of  the  moral 
needs  of  men.  He  will  always  ask.  What  am  I  to  do  with 
my  knowledge;  what  use  can  I  make  of  it  in  the  interest 
of  my  fellow  men?  What  kind  of  knowledge  will  be  of 
most  avail?  What  am  I  to  do  with  the  fruits  of  my  educa- 
tion and  culture?  The  man  who  asks  and  answers  these 
questions  will  be  led  to  assimilate  what  is  practically  profit- 
able and  will  crowd  into  the  background  all  useless  knowl- 
edge and  all  aimless  culture.  The  field  of  knowledge  in  our 
day  is  so  vast  that  no  preacher  can  reasonably  hope  to  attain 
to  much  distinction  as  a  specialist  or  an  authority  in  any 
branch  of  knowledge  outside  his  own  profession,  and  even 
here  it  must  be  limited.  Even  here  he  will  be  obliged  to  dis- 
criminate as  to  those  branches  of  professional  knowledge 
that  are  most  important  for  him  as  a  preacher  or  more 
broadly  a  minister.  What  he  needs,  therefore,  is  the  pur- 
pose and  the  skill  to  win  such  knowledge  and  such  culture  as 
may  be  made  most  immediately  and  effectively  available  for 
the  work  of  preaching,  or  rather  of  the  ministry  and  this  in 
order  that  his  work  may  be  the  more  profitable. 

Alertness  is,  of  course,  a  prominent  trait  of  the  homiletic 
mind,  an  alertness  namely  that  is  stimulated  by  mental, 
moral  and  emotional  earnestness  and  that  exercises  the 
imagination  freely  in  the  work  of  winning  suggestive 
material. 


378  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

The  habit  of  fixing  material  that  may  be  made  available 
for  future  pulpit  use  is  one  that  finds  its  strongest  motive 
in  the  culture  of  the  homiletic  mind.  In  these  days  of 
miscellaneous  avocation  that  exacts  upon  the  preacher, 
taxing  his  time  and  strength,  some  useful  method  of  stor- 
ing material  is  absolutely  necessary.  No  busy  preacher  un- 
dertakes to  get  on  without  it.  Dr.  R.  W.  Dale  has  told 
us  his  method.*  It  is  a  very  judicious  method.  Many  of 
the  helps  of  which  preachers  avail  themselves  are  worse 
than  useless.  They  are  demoralizing.  But  any  method 
that  conserves  the  freedom  and  vitality  of  the  preacher  will 
be  a  boon  to  the  modern  hard-worked  pulpiteer. 

4.  The  importance  of  religious  culture  in  the  interest 
of  production  calls  for  specific  mention.  One's  spiritual 
condition  in  the  hours  of  preparation  not  only  but  as 
the  habit  of  life  may  be  more  closely  allied  with 
mental  productiveness  than  at  first  might  be  imagined. 
Its  necessity  for  the  right  sort  of  productiveness  is  much 
more  evident  and  is  still  more  marked.  Impoverished 
spiritual  life  means  unprofitable  preaching.  It  means  de- 
vitalized preaching.  Mental  life  is  notably  quickened, 
strengthened  and  enriched  by  the  stimulus  of  the  spiritual 
life.  A  man  will  grow  mentally,  as  well  as  morally  and 
spiritually,  whose  purpose  is  high  and  whose  love  for  God 
and  men  is  strong.  Men  not  highly  gifted  mentally  or 
rhetorically  sometimes  win  distinguished  success  in  the 
helpful  presentation  of  the  Gospel.  The  man  with  full  heart 
and  strong  purpose,  who  also  has  diligence  and  good  sense, 
will  always  be  likely  to  have  something  worth  while  to  say 
in  the  pulpit.  Recall  Luther's  "Bene  orasse  est  bene 
studuisse."  He  whose  spiritual  life  is  exalted  will  see  the 
more  clearly,  and  feel  the  more  strongly  and  his  purpose 
to  bless   men   will   be   the   more   intense   and  his   love   and 


*  Yale  Lectures.     Lecture  III  and  IV. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  379 

sympathy  the  deeper.  The  most  helpful  preaching  is  pro- 
duct of  a  devout  frame  of  mind  and  the  best  type  of  it  is 
impossible  without  spiritual  elevation  in  the  hours  of  pre- 
paration and  delivery.  The  human  soul  is  one.  Mental 
life  can  not  safely  be  divorced  from  spiritual  life.  If  one 
would  aim  supremely  at  what  is  profitable  in  his  preach- 
ing, let  him  cultivate  his  spiritual  life.  It  has  been  justly 
said  that  the  use  of  the  Bible,  as  a  basis  for  preaching,  is 
no  guarantee  for  the  Christian  quality  of  the  sermon.  It 
all  depends  on  one's  use  of  the  Bible  and  this  depends 
on  the  condition  of  one's  spiritual  hfe.  As  a  merely  external 
source  it  may  be  of  no  more  value  than  the  works  of  Plato. 
It  is  a  deep  experience  of  the  power  of  the  grace  of  God 
in  Christ  and  the  nurture  of  that  grace  that  will  secure  the 
pulpit  from  an  unprofitable  intellectualism  and  moralism. 
Any  divorce  of  spiritual  from  mental  life  will  devitalize  the 
pulpit.  He  who  loves  the  truth,  not  merely  for  its  own 
sake,  but  for  the  sake  of  its  worth  to  one's  fellowmen,  will 
never  degenerate  into  an  unfruitful  dogmatist,  nor  into  an 
unfruitful  rationalist  and  moralist. 

5.  The  necessity  of  an  intelUgent  and  persistent  habit 
of  producing  is  evident.  Every  newcomer  must  win  his  own 
facility  and  must  learn  to  produce  in  his  own  way.  Right 
habit  will  win.  It  is  constantly  easier  to  do  what  one  has 
tried  to  do  well.  The  habit  of  writing  should  be  perpetuated. 
It  should  be  diligently  cultivated  especially  in  the  early  part 
of  one's  ministry.  One  would  better  write  much,  even 
though  he  may  not  carry  his  product  in  its  written  form 
into  the  pulpit. 

6.  Some  consideration  of  the  arrangement  of  material 
as  it  is  produced  with  reference  to  rhetorical  interests  might 
well  close  our  discussion  of  the  development.  In  doing 
this,  however,  we  should  only  traverse  ground  already  pretty 
thoroughly  covered  in  the  discussion  of  the  outline.     The 


38o  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

only  points  that  would  need  emphasis  are  those  already  dis- 
cussed, z'ic;  unity,  completeness,  symmetry  and  progress  in 
the  process  of  unfolding.  But  the  discussion  of  these  points 
as  related  to  the  development  would  involve  no  new  features. 
It  may  be  worth  while,  however,  to  suggest  that  it  would 
be  well  to  pause  at  different  stages  of  the  development  and 
raise  the  question  whether  the  whole  discussion  as  it  pro- 
ceeds is  bound  directly  back  to  the  theme  and  to  the  topics 
and  whether  it  presses  forward  straight  to  its  objective 
point  and  whether,  therefore,  the  whole  thing  is  bound  to- 
gether in  unity,  each  part  with  every  other  and  with  the 
whole;  whether  the  subject  is  being  discussed  with  sufficient 
fulness  at  each  stage,  whether  the  parts  are  rhetorically 
proportionate,  and  symmetrical,  and  whether  the  sermon 
has  a  straight-line  movement  in  all  its  parts  on  to  the  end. 
These  questions  do  not  answer  themselves,  nor  can  they 
be  successfully  answered  without  profit  to  preacher 
and  hearer.  They  are  not  intrusive  and  need  not  disturb 
the  inspirations  of  the  sacred  hours  of  preparation. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  CONCLUSION 

The  conclusion  corresponds  to  the  introduction.  Like  the 
introduction,  it  takes  into  account  the  hearer's  mental  and 
emotional  state.  The  problem  of  the  one  is  to  win  interest 
for  the  discussion.  The  problem  of  the  other  is  to  utilize 
such  interest  after  it  has  been  won.  It  is  in  general  not 
utilized  to  best  advantage  by  a  sudden  break  and  a  dead  stop. 
The  conclusion  accentuates  the  practical  significance  of  the 
sermon.  It  may  disclose  the  moral  earnestness  of  the 
preacher.  The  conclusion,  of  course,  is  not  the  only  part  of 
the  sermon  where  the  truth  may  be  practically  applied,  but, 
as  in  the  didactic  sermon,  it  is  generally  the  most  appropriate 
place  for  most  effective  application.  It  interprets,  therefore, 
the  practical  aim  of  the  sermon.  It  has,  like  the  introduc- 
tion, an  ethical  value.  It  accentuates  also  the  rhetorical 
completeness  of  the  sermon.  Without  it  the  sermon  would 
lack  artistic  unity.  The  conclusion  is  part  of  the  organism 
of  the  sermon.  Without  it  there  is  a  lack.  It  is  more  than 
artistic  incompleteness.  An  abrupt  break  in  a  discussion  is 
likely  to  result  in  a  certain  mental  as  well  as  aesthetic  dissat- 
isfaction. It  leaves  the  impression  of  mental  incomplete- 
ness. It  is  an  unfinished  product.  The  more  interested  the 
hearer  is,  the  greater  the  offense  of  a  sudden  break  in  which 
he  parts  company  with  the  preacher.  A  conclusion  may  be 
rapid.  It  may  even  be  sudden.  Better  so  in  general  than 
a  long-drawn  conclusion.  The  best  thing  one  may  be  able 
to  do  for  an  audience  in  exceptional  cases  is  to  part  company 
with  it  suddenly.     But  an  abrupt  break  that  leaves  the  sub- 


382  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

ject  unfinished  and  the  whole  thing  hanging  in  the  air  is 
another  matter.  In  dramatic  movement,  we  feel  the  shock 
of  a  premature  conclusion  the  more  intensely  because  it  is  a 
movement  in  action  rather  than  in  thought.  The  audience 
is  wrought  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  feeling  and  is  suddenly 
dropped.  If  the  plot  is  not  properly  ended,  the  artistic  sense 
is  oflfended.  It  rightly  demands  completeness.  In  this  dra- 
matic art  represents  ideal  reality.  But  as  regards  the  ser- 
mon the  principle  is  the  same.  The  conclusion,  therefore,  is 
more  than  a  device  for  announcing  to  the  audience  that  the 
preacher  has  reached  the  end  of  his  discussion.  It  is  a 
device  for  getting  through  in  the  proper  way,  /.  c,  gracefully, 
if  you  please,  or  better,  in  such  way  as  will  satisfy  mental  and 
moral  needs.  Satisfaction  for  the  artistic  sense  of  unity  and 
completeness  is  a  relatively  insignificant  consideration  in  a 
moral  product,  like  a  sermon.  But  it  may  stand  for  some- 
thing more  important  behind  it.  And  here  the  aesthetic  and 
artistic  represent  the  ethical  interest. 

I.     The  Value  of  the  Conclusiont 

From  what  has  been  said  it  may  be  inferred  that  in  general 
the  sermon,  whatever  its  sort,  may  well  have  a  somewhat 
well-defined  conclusion  as  well  as  introduction.  There 
would  certainly  be  nothing  gained  from  the  artistic  point  of 
view  in  lopping  the  head  and  tail  of  a  sermon,  and  just  as 
little  gained  from  the  ethical  point  of  view. 

The  value  of  the  conclusion  is  first  of  all  that  it  gives  the 
subject  discussed  a  new  turn.  It  throws  new  light  upon  it 
and  secures  for  it  new  impressiveness.  It  thus  leaves  a  new 
idea  of  what  the  subject  is  capable  of  in  the  way  of  fruitful 
suggestion.  This  is  of  course  eminently  true  of  the  inferen- 
tial conclusion.  But  it  is  in  a  way  true  of  all  forms  of  con- 
clusion. 

It  also  carries  the  truth  home  with  concentrated  force.     It 


THE  CONCLUSION  383 

is  the  stroke  that  has  behind  it  the  compact  energy  of  the 
whole  sermon. 

And  it  carries  the  final  impression.  There  is  nothing 
beyond  it,  to  weaken  the  impression,  or  to  neutrahze  or  dis- 
sipate it.  It  is  the  preacher's  last  chance  at  his  audience. 
Here  the  gist  of  the  sermon  or  some  most  vital  and  seriously 
important  suggestion  from  it  is  gathered  up  into  a  compact 
mass  and  thrown,  as  a  last  shot,  so  to  say,  at  the  audience. 
It  is  likely  to  go  home.  It  certainly  will  if  it  be  weighty  in 
itself,  because  it  is  loaded  with  the  cumulative  force  of  the 
entire  sermon.  Last  words  stick,  if  they  are  what  they 
ought  to  be.  This  is  the  reason  why  importance  should  be 
attached  to  them.  The  practical  value  of  the  conclusion  may 
be  suggested  by  some  of  the  terms  applied  to  it.  The  clas- 
sical terms  are  for  the  most  part  without  much  significance. 
They  are  chiefly  artistic  terms  suggesting  merely  the  end  of 
the  discussion,  e.  g.,  epilogue,  peroration,  conclusion.  They 
may  suggest,  however,  final  impression,  and  so  accentuate 
the  practical  interest  of  the  discourse.  The  word  "cumulus" 
however,  as  suggesting  the  crown-point  of  the  discussion, 
may  also  convey  the  notion  of  gathering  up  the  cumulative 
force  of  the  speech  and  of  applying  it  at  the  end.  The  two 
ideas  of  cumulative  force  and  final  impression  were  prevalent 
in  classical  oratory  in  its  conception  of  the  function  of  the 
peroration.  The  two  chief  forms  were  recapitulation, 
designed  to  clinch  the  mental  impression  of  the  address,  and 
appeal,  designed  for  final  emotional  impression.  The  con- 
clusion by  inference,  which  gives  the  subject  discussed  a  new 
turn  in  the  way  of  final  application  and  for  the  purpose  of 
fresh  mental  and  ethical  impression  is  chiefly  characteristic 
of  pulpit  oratory.  The  terms  used  by  Christian  rhetoric  to 
designate  the  work  of  conclusion  suggests  at  once  its  prac- 
tical character,  e.  g.,  "improvement,"  "use,"  "application," 
and  the  terms  that  come  through  scholasticism  from  2  Tim. 


384  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

3:16,  "instruction,"  "reproof,"  "correction,"  "admonition" 
and  "encouragement."  "Observation,"  "inference"  and 
even  "recapitulation"  suggest  also  the  gathering  up  of  a 
subject  or  phases  of  it,  with  reference  to  practical  use.  Thus 
the  conclusion  makes  the  practical  aim  of  the  sermon  the 
more  apparent,  and  would  make  it  the  more  decisively 
felt. 

The  sort,  amount  and  method  of  the  conclusion  will,  of 
course,  depend  on  the  sort  of  sermon.  A  didactic  sermon 
will  naturally  have  a  conclusion  corresponding  to  its  charac- 
ter and  aim.  It  will  be  fitted  to  help  on  its  didactic  purpose, 
i.  e.,  to  leave  as  clear  and  strong  an  impression  as  possible  of 
the  weight  and  importance  of  the  subject  discussed.  An 
ethical  or  evangelistic  sermon  will  naturally  have  a  conclu- 
sion of  a  more  emotional  and  hortatory  character.  But  it 
will  be  brief.  The  practical  character  of  the  sermon  will 
have  been  apparent  throughout  and  there  will  be  the  less 
need  of  extended  practical  application  at  the  end.  The  need 
of  formal  and  carefully-defined  conclusion,  therefore,  is 
somewhat  limited,  limited,  that  is,  by  the  character  and  aim 
of  the  sermon.  There  are  two  classes  of  sermons  that  have 
no  special  use  for  such  a  conclusion.  There  is  the  sermon 
in  which  the  subject  is  continuously  applied  in  the  process 
of  discussion,  c.  g.,  the  textual  or  expository  or  biographical 
or  historical  sermon.  The  truth  in  these  types  of  sermons 
is  not  always  continuously  applied.  In  the  biographical  and 
historical  sermon  the  application  is  sometimes  separated 
from  the  discussion.  On  the  whole,  however,  that  would 
seem  to  be  the  better  sort  of  textual,  expository,  biograph- 
ical and  historical  sermon  that  applies  the  truth  in  the 
process  of  discussion.  In  fact  it  is  rather  diflficult  to  secure 
an  application  at  the  end  of  such  a  sermon  without  injuring 
its  unity.  In  the  hortatory  sermon  only  a  brief  word  of 
conclusion  is  necessary,  in  general  the  briefer  the  better.     A 


THE  CONCLUSION  385 

quick  moving  and  even  abrupt  conclusion  may  not  be  inap- 
propriate in  a  sermon  in  which  emotion  runs  high  all 
through  and  that  increases  up  to  the  end.  Still  a  detached 
last  word  is  always  best.  The  topical  sermon  also,  and 
especially  one  of  the  argumentative  type  in  which  the  discus- 
sion forms  a  climax  in  which  the  interest  is  cumulative, 
may  be  less  dependent  on  a  distinct  formal  conclusion.  The 
last  topic  of  the  discussion,  which  reaches  the  crown-point  of 
the  process,  may  often  well  constitute  the  point  of  attach- 
ment for  the  conclusion.  A  brief  final  word  in  line  with  the 
thought-impression  of  this  last  topic  may  be  the  most  fitting 
and  effective  thing.  To  pause  and  turn  the  thought  of  the 
audience  aside  from  this  final  impression  by  undertaking  to 
gather  up  reflections  into  a  conclusion  from  the  subject  as  a 
whole  might  weaken  the  impression  already  produced.  In 
general,  however,  the  topical  sermon  of  the  didactic  sort 
calls  for  a  distinct  conclusion  based  on  the  entire  discussion. 
The  value  of  an  effective  discussion  is  generally  best  secured 
by  an  independent  application.  In  a  weighty  and  absorbing 
discussion  the  hearer  does  not  wish  to  be  perpetually  dis- 
turbed by  the  preacher's  effort  to  apply  what  he  is  seeking 
to  elucidate.  If  one  is  interested  in  a  discussion  he  does  not 
wish  to  stop  to  moralize.  At  the  end,  however,  the  intelli- 
gent listener  is  ready  for  the  application  and  he  expects  it. 
In  sermons  with  close-wrought  unity,  and  rapid  movement, 
vividly  illustrated  and  expressed  with  emotional  vigor,  all 
necessity  for  pausing  in  the  process  for  application  is  super- 
seded. The  application  comes  better  at  the  end,  where  the 
whole  subject  may  be  used  effectively.  In  fact  the  didactic 
topical  sermon  furnishes  suggestions  in  the  way  of  inference 
or  deduction  that  can  in  general  be  secured  only  at  the  end, 
where  the  whole  subject  may  be  gathered  up  into  a  conclu- 
sion. And  yet  in  many  cases  the  last  topic  may  be  the  best 
point  of  attachment  for  the  conclusion.     This  must  be  left  to 


386  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

the  ethical  and  rhetorical  instincts  of  the  preacher,  and  the 
character  of  his  discussion  will  furnish  his  basis  of  judgment. 

n.     Qualities  of  the  Conclusion 
Such  qualities  as  are  here  discussed  are  in  the  main  applic- 
able to  every  sort  of  conclusion,  whether  of  a  didactic  or 
practical  character. 

1.  Distinctness  is  first  of  all  the  mark  of  a  good  conclu- 
sion. Like  the  introduction  it  may  well  be  slightly  detached 
from  the  main  body  of  the  sermon.  It  is  well  if  it  be  not 
undistinguishably  entangled  in  the  discussion,  as  it  some- 
times was  in  the  preaching  of  Chalmers.  Where  the  last 
topic  of  a  cumulative  discussion  furnishes  a  basis  for  the  con- 
clusion, it  is  less  likely  to  be  detached,  as  we  see  not  infre- 
quently in  the  preaching  of  Chrysostom,  of  Robertson  and 
of  Chalmers.  But  it  is  not  well  that  any  discussion  run 
without  some  pause,  however  slight,  plump  up  to  the  end 
and  stop  abruptly.  It  is  better  to  make  it  apparent  that  one 
is  using  the  last  topic  as  a  basis  for  a  conclusion,  than  to 
leave  the  impression  that  he  is  running  the  discussing  full 
tilt  up  to  the  end.  Not  even  a  hortatory  sermon  should  end 
thus.  Better  some  slight  pause,  accompanied  by  some 
change  of  attitude,  and  some  change  in  the  tones  of  the  voice 
to  indicate  that  the  preacher  would  approach  his  audience 
with  his  final  word.  Much  of  the  preaching  of  our  day 
undervalues  the  conclusion,  frequently  ignoring  it,  altogether, 
running  the  discussion  straight  to  the  end,  making  no  prac- 
tical use  of  the  subject,  not  even  applying  it  in  the  main  body 
of  the  sermon.  The  latter  part  of  the  sermon  often  shows  a 
falling  off  in  mental  and  emotional  vigor.  There  is  a  lack  of 
cumulative  power,  of  which  the  conclusion  should  avail  itself. 
This  is  a  serious  defect.  No  great  message  can  be  effec- 
tively conveyed  if  the  preacher  flats  out  in  anticlimax. 

2.  Applicablcness    is   another   quality.       The    conclusion 


THE  CONCLUSION  387 

pre-supposes  the  end  of  the  discussion.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
close  of  the  whole  sermon.  The  rhetorical  terms  "perora- 
tion" and  "epilogue"  seem  to  suggest  this.  The  peroration 
is  that  which  completes  the  entire  speech.  The  epilogue  is 
that  which  is  added  at  the  end  of  the  discussion.  This  is  true 
even  of  the  conclusion  that  attaches  itself  to  the  last  topic 
discussed.  Thus  the  conclusion  corresponds  to  the  intro- 
duction. As  the  one  does  not  anticipate,  so  the  other  does 
not  end  the  discussion.  Like  the  introduction,  however,  it 
has  a  very  close  thought-relation  with  the  discussion.  It 
takes  up  some  aspect  or  aspects  of  the  subject  that  have  not 
appeared  directly  in  the  discussion,  but  are  naturally  sug- 
gested by  it.  It  may  be  some  aspect  of  the  whole  subject, 
in  which  case  the  thought  unity  of  the  sermon  is  the  more 
adequately  conserved.  The  whole  discourse  from  beginning 
to  end  is  thus  bound  together.  The  introduction  has  led  up 
to  the  subject  as  a  whole  and  the  conclusion  uses 
the  subject  as  a  whole.  In  the  didactic  discourse  this  is 
generally  the  case.  And  yet,  as  already  suggested,  the  con- 
clusion may  take  up  the  last  point  discussed.  In  this  case 
the  sermon  should  be  so  shaped  that  the  most  important  topic, 
from  the  rhetorical  point  of  view,  should  come  last.  Thus 
the  teleological  unity  of  the  sermon  is  conserved. 

3.  Pertinence  is  an  allied  quality.  This  does  not  take 
care  of  itself.  Ineptness  is  not  an  impossible  homiletic  sin, 
and  it  is  quite  as  fatal  to  harmony  in  the  conclusion  as  it  is 
in  the  introduction.  Better  stop  short  than  flat  out.  Better 
violence  than  inconsequence.  Ineptitude  suggests  that  the 
preacher  does  not  keenly  sense  the  import  of  what  he  has 
been  saying  or  what  he  now  says,  or  that  he  is  weary  of  the 
discussion  and  doesn't  care  what  he  says  next,  so  only  he 
may  make  an  end  of  the  discussion,  and  says  what  happens 
to  come  into  his  head  without  reference  to  its  pertinency. 
One  should  be  at  his  best  in  bringing  the  sermon  to  a  close. 


388  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

In  connection  with  this  matter  of  pertinence  two  questions 
occur  that  are  worth  a  moment's  consideration. 

The  first  relates  to  the  use  of  contrast  in  the  conclusion. 
The  principle  of  harmony  would  on  the  face  of  it,  seem  to 
reject  contrast.  One  would  say  that  the  conclusion  should 
correspond  in  sentiment,  feeling,  tone,  as  well  as  thought, 
with  the  discussion.  If  the  sermon  is  admonitory  or 
severely  ethical  in  tone  the  conclusion  should  correspond. 
It  should  not  be  parenetic  or  paracletic.  It  should  carry 
through  to  the  end  the  tone  of  ethical  severity.  If  the  ser- 
mon is  evangelistically  emotional,  the  conclusion  should  not 
be  mentally  reflective  or  didactic.  In  general  this'  may  be 
the  correct  view.  And  yet  it  is  not  safe  to  apply  this  as  a 
regulative  law.  Contrast  is  often  more  effective  than  corre- 
spondence. In  fact  it  may  be  in  truest  harmony  with  the 
final  purpose  of  the  sermon.  It  was  Schleiermacher's 
opinion  that  no  Christian  sermon  should  ever  end  with  a 
tone  of  judicial  or  ethical  severity.  Every  sermon,  whatever 
its  character,  should  close  with  a  tone  of  Christian  hopeful- 
ness and  joyfulness.  This  opinion  can  not  perhaps  be  fully 
justified.  But  it  is  evident  at  once  that  it  would  often  intro- 
duce the  principle  of  contrast,  and  doubtless  with  good 
result.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  note  of  hope  and  joy 
is  eminently  Christian  and  indeed  often  rhetorically  most 
effective  at  the  close  of  a  sermon  that  has  dealt  searchingly 
with  the  heart  and  conscience.  What  is  most  Christian  is 
likely  to  be  most  effective  rhetorically.  But  Schleier- 
macher's principle  is  rhetorically  inadmissible  after  all,  for 
the  principle  of  contrast  may  equally  well  demand  that  a 
sermon  end  with  a  tone  of  solemn  admonition.  A  preacher's 
spirit  should,  of  course,  always  be  Christian.  But  ethical 
and  rhetorical  pertinence  may  be  a  safer  guide  than  even 
Christian  gentleness  and  graciousness  in  concluding  a  sermon 
that  has  spoken  hopefully  to  the  heart.     It  is  often  necessary 


THE  CONCLUSION  389 

to  leave  the  truth  with  the  conscience,  and  the  last  word  of 
warning  may  be  most  pertinent  to  the  moral  purpose  of  the 
sermon  as  well  as  most  powerful,  and  no  rule  of  Christian 
sentiment  should  displace  it.  The  contrast  between  grace 
and  severity  may  be  as  effective  as  that  between  severity  and 
grace.  It  is  well  to  set  hope  in  contrast  with  admonition. 
But  it  may  be  equally  well  to  set  admonition  over  against 
hope.  Contrast  here  may  be  more  efifective  than  correspon- 
dence. Much  depends  on  the  concrete  conditions  of  the 
case. 

The  second  question  relates  to  the  use  of  prayer  in  the 
conclusion.  It  may  be  even  more  impressive  and  pertinent 
than  in  the  introduction.  From  sermons  of  a  prevailingly 
didactic  character,  in  which  no  very  strong  ethical  or  emo- 
tional impression  is  sought  or  made,  it  is  naturally  excluded. 
But   the  emotional   sermon   that   seeks   and   secures   strono- 

o 

ethical  and  religious  impression  and  that   is   cumulative   in 
emotional  power  may  well  end  in  prayer.     It  is  very  natural 
in  such  a  sermon  to  pass  into  a  brief  utterance  of  adoration, 
or  ascription,  or  petition.     It  may  harmonize  well  with  the 
whole  tone  of  the  sermon.     It  may  fall  into  line  with  the 
character  and  design  of  worship.     There  is  a  closer  connec- 
tion  between    some  types    of   preaching   and   worship,    and 
more  specifically  prayer,  than  may  be  apparent.       To  the 
oriental  it  is   more  apparent  than  to  the  occidental   mind. 
We  find  this  in  the  preaching  of  the  New  Testament.     The 
English  preachers  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centu- 
ries were  accustomed  to  close  their  sermons  with  an  ascrip- 
tion to  the  Trinity.       It  was  a   matter  of  form  and  often 
lacked  pertinence,  but  it  accentuated  the   close   connection 
between  preaching  and  prayer.     German  preachers,  who  in 
general  hold  the  sermon  closer  to  worship  than  American 
preachers  do,  often  close,  as  they  open,  with  prayer.     Dr. 
Horace  Bushnell  closes  his  sermon  "Putting  on  Christ"  with 


390  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

the  words,  "Cover  us  in  it"  (/'.  c,  thy  righteousness),  "O  thou 
Christ  of  God  and  let  our  shame  be  hid  eternally  in  Thee." 
Cardinal  Newman  sometimes  did  this  with  exquisite  taste 
and  with  intense  earnestness,  interjecting-  prayer  into  the 
midst  of  the  sermon  as  well  as  at  the  close.  The  tone  of 
the  sermon  should,  of  course,  be  exalted  to  sanction  it.  It 
may  be  noted  finally  that  closing  with  the  words  of  the  text 
is  a  pertinent  device.  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  and  Mr.  Spurgeon 
often  do  this.  The  most  appropriate  thing  one  can  do  some- 
times is  to  close  with  the  same  remark  with  which  the 
sermon  opened,  this  binding  the  beginning  and  the  end 
together. 

4.  Conciseness  is  one  of  the  qualities  of  a  good  conclu- 
sion. It  can  afford  to  be  concise  because  it  is  based  on  the 
cumulative  results  of  the  discussion.  This  is  true  especially 
of  the  sermon  that  is  emotionally  strong  and  that  moves 
rapidly  to  a  climax.  A  compact,  sententious  conclusion  is 
the  most  fitting  sort  of  conclusion  for  an  audience  that  is 
already  aroused  emotionally.  Even  an  abrupt  conclusion 
may  be  most  fitting.  It  depends,  of  course,  on  the  sort  of 
sermon  and  the  effect  already  produced.  The  reflective  or 
inferential  conclusion  that  ends  a  didactic  discussion  is 
naturally  longer  and  more  deliberate  than  a  conclusion  by 
appeal.  But  compactness  and  brevity  are  the  rule.  Dr. 
Bushnell,  after  some  of  his  most  vigorous  discussions,  dis- 
closes the  conviction  that  he  has  said  enough,  and  that  there 
would  be  a  loss  of  power  in  an  extended  conclusion,  adding 
as  his  nearly  last  word:  "We  need  no  conclusion."  It  is 
noteworthy,  however,  that  even  after  this  he  rounds  out  the 
sermon  with  a  distinct  conclusion,  brief  though  it  be.  Bush- 
nell's  preaching  shows  that  the  topical  sermon,  which  calls 
for  an  inferential  application  of  the  subject,  has  naturally  a 
longer  conclusion  than  the  textual  sermon.  Conciseness  in 
the  conclusion  is  in  harmony  with  the  tastes  of  our  time. 


THE  CONCLUSION  391 

The  long-drawn  five-fold  conclusion  of  the  scholastic  sermon 
was  appropriate  to  the  character  of  that  type  of  preaching. 
It  was  a  method  of  securing  practical  application,  which  was 
almost  wholly  lacking  in  the  main  body  of  the  sermon.  The 
brief,  simple  conclusion  of  our  day  is  in  harmony  with  the 
character  of  its  preaching. 

III.  Methods  of  the  Conclusion 
All  methods  may  be  grouped  under  two  classes,  the 
didactic  and  the  impressional.  One  speaks  prevailingly  to 
the  mind,  the  ot,her  to  the  emotions.  In  classical  oratory 
the  deliberative  and  judicial  types  of  address  attached  im- 
portance to  the  didactic  conclusion,  i.  e.,  it  sought  first  of  all 
to  clinch  and  perpetuate  the  mental  impression  of  the  speech. 
The  epideictic  type  of  address  affected  especially  the  emo- 
tional or  impressional  conclusion.  After  recapitulation, 
which  may  be  called  the  didactic  conclusion,  there  was  also 
added  to  the  deliberative  and  judicial  address  an  emotional 
appeal.  The  character  of  the  question,  of  the  discussion  and 
of  the  audience  would  determine  the  character  and  extent  of 
the  appeal.  In  general  the  emotional  conclusion  had  a 
prominent  place,  however,  in  classical  oratory,  for  its  task 
was  to  arouse  to  action  a  populace  that  was  dependent  on  ora- 
torical excitement.  The  character  of  the  conclusion  some- 
what strikingly  suggests  the  difference  between  ancient  and 
modern  and  especially  classical  and  Christian  oratory.  The 
didactic  conclusion  perhaps  may  be  called  one  of  the  distin- 
guishing marks  of  Christian  oratory.  It  does  not  appeal 
primarily  to  the  emotions  or  passions  of  men  but  to  thought 
and  reflection  and  to  emotion  and  will  as  influenced  by  intelli- 
gence. Different  types  of  Christian  discourse  are  also  dis- 
tinguished by  the  character  of  the  conclusion.  The  writer 
agrees  with  Dr.  Dawson  that  from  the  modern  sermon,  and 
especially  the  American  sermon  the  note  of  appeal  has  too 


392  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

largely  vanished.  But  it  is  still  true  that  the  didactic  conclu- 
sion will  always  be  characteristic  of  the  pastoral  sermon, 
while  the  emotional  conclusion  or  conclusion  by  appeal  will 
always  be  characteristic  of  the  evangelistic  sermon. 

But  let  us  look  at  some  of  the  most  common  methods  of 
conclusion  and  at  their  adaptations. 

I.  Recapitulation,  which  is  the  summary  of  topics,  or 
resume,  which  is  a  fuller  summary  of  the  contents  of  the  ser- 
mon, is  properly  a  part  of  the  discussion  rather  than  of  the 
conclusion.  In  fact  it  rarely  ever  concludes  a  sermon. 
Something  is  generally  added  after  it.  Thus  in  the  classic 
oration.  The  conclusion  was  less  than  the  peroration.  It 
was  the  end  of  it,  and  followed  the  recapitulation,  making 
use  of  it  as  a  basis  for  appeal.  The  recapitulation,  however, 
was  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  peroration,  rather  than  of  the 
main  body  of  the  discussion.  In  homiletics  it  is  generally 
treated  as  a  form  or  method  of  conclusion,  and  we  will  so 
regard  it.  It  may  be  easily  detached  from  the  discussion 
and  thrown  across  into  the  conclusion,  as  a  preparation  for 
practical  application.  In  two  classes  of  sermons  recapitula- 
tion is  especially  desirable. 

First  in  sermons  without  clearly-diliferentiated  topics  or 
formal  divisions,  like  those  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  Canon  Mozley 
and  Cardinal  Newman.  Many  at  least  of  the  discourses  of 
these  great  preachers  would  be  of  greater  value  even  to  the 
reader  with  a  brief  resume  of  contents  or  recapitulation  of 
topics.  If  one  does  not  care  to  obtrude  his  outline  he  is 
beholden  at  least  to  the  average  hearer  to  make  a  summary 
of  his  topics.  There  are,  of  course,  sermons  that  need  no 
recapitulation,  tho^e  for  example,  that  are,  like  many  of 
Newman's,  dependent  upon  rhetorical  impression  rather 
than  upon  elaborate  discussion,  for  their  effectiveness.  But 
sermons  without  clear  outline  that  discuss  important  themes 
demand  recapitulation  as  really  as  the  old  classic  deliberative 


THE  CONCLUSION  393 

or  judicial  oration  demanded  it.  Lawyers  often  express 
surprise  that  preachers  do  not  recapitulate  more.  A 
preacher  should  surely  be  as  intent  upon  carrying  his  case  as 
a  lawyer,  although  the  case  to  be  carried  and  one's  idea  of 
carrying  it  may  be  very  different.  What  the  lawyer  means 
by  carrying  his  case  is  that  he  must  get  it  so  effectively 
before  the  jury  that  he  will  carry  them.  Recapitulation 
aids  him  in  doing  this.  And  what  less  can  or  should  a 
preacher  mean  by  carrying  his  case  than  to  put  his  subject 
before  his  hearers  just  as  effectively  as  possible  with  refer- 
ence to  the  accomplishment  of  a  moral  and  religious  result? 
The  aim  is  to  bring  the  hearer  into  subjection  to  the  power 
of  truth.  If  recapitulation  will  aid  one  in  getting  his  subject 
more  effectively  before  the  hearer  with  reference  to  this 
result,  as  it  often  will,  why  should  he  not  recapitulate  as  the 
skilful  lawyer  does?  Of  course  there  must  be  something  to 
recapitulate.  It  presupposes  a  discussion,  although  not 
necessarily  of  an  elaborate  sort.  We  do  not  recapitulate 
the  utterances  of  sentiment  and  emotion  that  are  dependent 
on  first  impression  and  can  not  be  reproduced  by  any  reca- 
pitulatory process. 

The  doctrinal,  the  argumentative  or  didactic  discourse  of 
the  weightier  sort  calls  for  recapitulation.  If  we  were  to 
limit  recapitulation  to  the  doctrinal  or  argumentative  type 
of  sermon,  the  pulpit  would  doubtless  get  on  without  it. 
But  all  weighty-didactic  discussion  needs  it.  By  the  use  of 
it  such  discussion  may  thereby  secure  even  a  certain  sort  of 
rhetorical  cogency.  To  grip  the  truth  and  to  condense  it 
into  compact  form  is  of  itself  an  element  of  force,  and  a  habit 
of  doing  this  may  even  become  tributary  to  a  more  forceful 
method  of  discussion. 

2.  Remark,  observation  or  reflection.  These  terms  all 
have  reference  to  the  more  practical  use  of  the  subject  dis- 
cussed which  the  conclusion  calls  for.     A  remark  is  a  brief 


394  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

practical  suggestion  based  on  some  aspect  of  the  subject  in 
hand.  An  observation  is  a  somewhat  more  extended  and 
carefully-considered  suggestion  based  on  what  one  observes 
or  discovers  of  the  practical  bearings  of  the  subject  in  dis- 
cussion. One  pauses  at  the  end  and  looks  at  the  subject 
from  a  new  point  of  view  in  order  to  see  what  he  may  find 
there  that  is  practically  useful  in  the  way  of  suggestion.  A 
reflection  means  about  the  same  thing.  It  is  a  suggestion 
that  comes  as  a  result  of  turning  the  subject  back  upon  the 
familiar  observations,  experiences  and  thought-habits  of  life. 
The  observation  is  a  species  of  inference,  for  it  comes  from 
the  subject  or  from  some  phase  of  it  in  an  inferential  way. 
But  it  is  appropriate  to  the  simpler  class  of  subjects  or  to 
the  simpler  class  of  discussions.  It  is  particularly  appro- 
priate to  the  biographical  or  historical  sermon.  It  comes 
in  the  form  of  practical  application  on  suggestion.  It  aims, 
not  so  much  to  magnify  the  subject  to  the  intelligence  of  the 
hearer,  with  reference  to  educative  results  by  increase  of 
knowledge,  as  to  make  a  practical  impression  upon  the 
heart  and  conscience  and  so  upon  the  life  of  the  hearer. 
Prof.  George  Shepards'  sermon,  "Saul,  the  Regressive  in 
Piety"  illustrates  this.  It  closes  with  two  observations,  re- 
flections or  practical  lessons :  (i)  We  should  be  afraid  of  the 
beginnings  of  sin ;  (2)  the  faults  that  wreck  men  are  the 
hidden,  not  the  obtrusive  ones.  The  sermon  "The  Giver  of 
the  Two  Mites"  also  illustrates:  (i)  The  heart  quality  in 
giving  is  the  chief  thing.  We  are  responsible  for  this.  (2) 
The  amount  of  good  done  is  determined  by  this.  (3)  We  are 
in  little  danger  of  giving  too  much.  These  are  indeed  infer- 
ences, but  of  the  simple,  practical  sort  and  are  designed  to 
perpetuate  ethical  rather  than  mental  impression. 

3.  Inference.  An  inference  is  a  remark  that  is  based  not 
on  a  direct  but  indirect  contemplation  of  a  subject,  i.  e.,  on 
some  sort  of  logical  deduction.     It  is  a  judgment  based  on 


THE  CONCLUSION  395 

the  logical  relations  of  thought  in  the  subject.     It  is  adapted 
to    the    didactic    sermon    of    the    more    weighty    sort.     It 
addresses  primarily  the  reflective  faculties.     It  is  a  mental 
and  moral  judgment  based  on  the  thought-relations  of  the 
discussion.     As   if  the  preacher  would   say:    Granting  that 
what  I  have  said  in  this  discussion  be  true,  you  can  see  for 
yourselves  that  the  following  inferential  judgments  or  sug- 
gestive teachings  must  also  be  true;  in  view  of  all  that  has 
been  said,  you  can  see  as  follows!     But  although  speaking 
to  the  hearers'  judgment,  it  may  be  one  of  the  most  effective 
ways  of  reaching  the  convictions  and  emotions.       It  may 
bring  the  subject  home  with  great  power.     It  puts  one  in  a 
dilemma:  You  approve  of  what  I  have  said?     You  are  con- 
vinced and  will  not  deny  it?     Well,  then,  this  rational,  this 
logical  and  very  practical  conclusion  follows  from  it,  and  you 
cannot  evade  the  import  of  it.     Inference,  therefore,  may  be 
used  with  great  practical  effect.     Its  power  lies  partly  in  the 
fact  that    it  brings    the    truth    to    bear    upon    the    hearer 
indirectly.     It  gets  at  him  by  getting  around  him.     Take  as 
an     example    the    conclusion    of     Dr.     Bushnell's     sermon, 
"Christ    Waiting   to    Find    Room."     Note    the    inferences: 
(i)  From  the  basis  of  the  discussion  we  see  inferentially  why 
Christianity  is  not  respected.     "Our  Gospel  fails  because  we 
so  poorly  represent  the  worth  and  largeness  of  it."     (2)     We 
see  why  there  is  so  much  polemical  theology.     "The  true 
hospitality  is  that   of  the  heart,   not   of   the   head,   etc.     If 
only  the  great  heart-world  of  the  race  were  set  upon  to  full 
entertainment  of  Jesus,  there  would  be  what  a  chiming  of 
peace  and  unity  in  the  common  love."     (3)     We  see  why 
Christianity  makes  so  little  head.     No  room  for  him  in  our 
zeal.     "Why  does  Christianity  malce  such  slow  progress?     I 
answer  Christ  gets  no  room,  as  yet,  to  work  and  to  be  the 
fire  in  men's  hearts  he  is  able  to  be."     (4)  We  see  why  we 
should  grieve  over  the  patience  he  is  obliged  to  exercise 


396  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

towards  us.  "But  what  most  of  all  grieves  me  is  that  Christ 
himself  has  so  great  wrong  to  endure  in  the  slowness  and 
low  faith  of  so  many  ages."  (5)  We  see  why  we  should 
hasten  to  make  room  for  him.  "All  the  sooner,  brethren, 
ought  we  to  come  to  the  heart  so  long  and  patiently  grieving 
for  us."  A  most  weighty  conclusion  not  only  in  the  realm 
of  judgment  but  in  the  realm  of  feeling  and  conviction  as 
well.  Note  the  cumulative  arrangement  of  the  inferences, 
ending  with  the  most  practical  and  personal.  They  come 
with  strong  logical  and  ethical  conclusiveness.  We  can  not 
escape  this  impression  of  conclusiveness. 

Professor  Shedd  has  directed  the  attention  to  the  value  of  the 
inference  in  the  discussion  of  subjects  whose  importance  lies 
not  wholly  in  themselves  but  in  the  truths  that  flow  from 
them.*  That  is,  the  power  of  the  inferential  conclusion  is 
best  realized  in  the  use  of  themes  that  naturally  furnish 
weighty  and  impressive  logical  conclusions  and  suggestions. 
Its  force  depends  on  its  close,  logical,  necessary  connection 
with  the  primary  truth.  The  force  of  comparison  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  sets  truths  in  their  analogous  relations,  i.  e.,  rela- 
tions of  likeness  of  principle.  The  power  of  contrast  lies  in 
so  setting  the  objects  of  thought  over  against  one  another 
that  we  the  more  readily  detect  the  relations  of  truth  and 
error.  The  power  of  inference  or  deduction  is  in  the  fact 
that  it  sets  truth  in  its  logical  and  necessary  relations,  /.  c, 
in  its  relations  of  cause  and  effect  or  of  antecedent  and  con- 
sequent. It  gives  one  an  impression  of  the  logical,  gripping 
power  of  the  truth.  It  is  the  more  effective  that  it  comes 
with  rhetorical  force  upon  the  emotions  as  well  as  with  log- 
ical force  upon  the  understanding.  Note  two  more  of  Dr. 
Bushnell's  inferential  conclusions,  c.  g.,  "Salvation  by  man."t 
Christ  saves  us  by  getting  into   and  abiding  in  corporate 

*  Hnmiletics,  page  198. 

t  "Christ  and  his  Salvation."    XIII.    page  271. 


THE  CONCLUSION  397 

relations  with  the  race.  This  is  the  thought  of  the  sermon. 
Inferences :  (i)  We  see  that  there  is  a  power  of  perpetual 
self-renewal  In  the  race.  (2)  Responsibility  of  Christ's  dis- 
ciples. The  world  is  saved  through  the  Church.  (3)  En- 
couragement to  patience.  The  world  must  be  saved  slowly. 
(4)  God's  delicacy  in  providing  salvation  not  only  for  us  but 
by  us.  "The  Insight  of  Love."  *  The  value  of  insight  above 
that  of  dialectic  or  casuistry  in  dealing  with  religious  sub- 
jects is  the  thought.  Inferences:  (i)  Insight  is  needed  in 
order  to  understand  Christ.  (2)  In  settling  the  perplexities 
of  the  Christian  life.  (3)  It  is  an  impelling  power  as  con- 
trasted with  selfish  prudence.  (4)  It  is  a  characteristic  of 
heavenly  society.  Note  here  the  great  range  and  variety  of 
truths  wrapped  up  in  the  primary  truth  discussed  and  thus 
brought  out.  All  this  greatly  enriches  preaching.  Without 
these  inferential  processes  one  would  fail  to  see  the  scope 
and  the  suggestiveness  of  the  primary  truth.  And  this 
process  is  a  most  effective  way  of  reaching  the  heart  and  con- 
science as  well,  especially  of  the  thoughtful  hearer. 

Two  qualities  are  essential  to  efifective  inference,  (i)  The 
logical  element  of  pertinence.  A  deduction  should  come 
naturally.  It  should  be  near  at  hand,  not  strained,  remote, 
far-fetched,  nor  yet  so  near  at  hand  as  to  be  too  obvious  and 
thus  commonplace.  It  should  readily  and  naturally  furnish 
a  new  aspect  of  the  subject,  i.  e.,  a  somewhat  more  direct 
and  practical,  although  subordinate  aspect  than  the  discus- 
sion has  furnished,  and  yet  it  should  not  be  so  obvious  as  to 
be  platitudinous.  (2)  The  rhetorical  element  of  brevity  and 
conciseness.  The  multiplication  and  prolix  elaboration  of 
inferences  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  mental  habits  and 
tastes  of  our  time.  There  are  many  things  that  might  be 
deduced  inferentially  from  the  theme  that  may  not  be  in 
harmony  with  the  aim  of  the  sermon  or  with  its  limits.     The 

*  "Christ  and  his   Salvation."   III.  page  51. 


398  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

topics   that   are  deduced   should   be   presented   suggestively 
rather  than  expansively  and  exhaustively. 

4.  Exhortation  or  appeal.  Recapitulation,  observation, 
inference  seek  the  will  largely  through  the  mind.  Exhorta- 
tion includes  all  direct  appeal  to  the  feelings  and  to  the 
conscience,  reaching  the  practical  activities  through  the 
emotions  and  moral  convictions  rather  than  through  the  re- 
flective faculties.  Inference  and  other  forms  of  the  didactic 
conclusion  perpetuate  the  mental  appeal,  and  leave  con- 
science and  will  to  appropriate  the  result.  Exhortation 
assumes  the  work  for  intelligence  as  already  done,  and  moves 
on  with  its  assumed  mental  result  directly  upon  the  emo- 
tional and  moral  sphere.  Most  people  are  somewhat  de- 
pendent upon  appeal  that  stirs  emotion.  In  fact  everybody 
is  measurably  dependent  on  it,  although  a  sort  of  appeal 
that  reaches  one  man  may  not  reach  another.  Certain 
types  of  emotion  are  discredited  in  our  day.  Intelligent 
people  discount  all  emotion  that  is  not  based  on  or  asso- 
ciated with  sane  thinking.  It  is  charged  that  the  pulpit  of 
our  day  has  measurably  lost  the  power  of  appeal.  And  it  is 
a  fact  that  there  is  but  relatively  little  hortatory  preaching. 
One  reason  is  doubtless  that  hortation  has  been  overdone. 
Another  reason  is,  however,  that  the  intellectual  element  in 
religion  has  been  over-accentuated.  And  another  still  is 
that  we  lay  more  stress  upon  action  than  upon  emotion  in 
the  religious  life.  We  see  this  measurably  in  modern  evan- 
gelistic methods.  Thomas  Carlyle,  the  great  apostle  of 
action,  whose  influence  on  this  line  in  the  last  century  was 
very  great,  has,  in  his  semi-jocose,  grotesque  fashion,  re- 
corded his  idea  of  practical  preaching  as  follows:  "If  I  were 
a  preacher,"  he  says,  'T  would  tell  the  people  on  Sunday 
what  to  do,  and  then  when  they  came  back  next  Sunday  I 
would  ask  them,  well,  have  you  done  that?  How  much  of 
it  have  you  done?     None?     Then  go  home  and  do  it."     If 


THE  CONCLUSION  399 

this    were   to   be   taken    seriously,    as    of    course    it    is    not, 
although   it   is   the    Carlylean   method   of    accentuating   the 
Gospel  of  work,  we  should  have  to  regard  it  as  pure  charla- 
tanism.    If  the  man  who  uttered  it  expected  his  prescription 
to  be  taken  seriously,  he  would  show  himself  to  be  neither  a 
philosopher  nor  an  orator.     It  disregards  the  necessity  of 
recognizing  t)he  principles  of  duty  as  distinguished  from  mere 
prescriptions  of  duty.     A  man  must  appropriate  the  principle 
before  he  is  likely  intelHgently  to  heed  the  prescription.     It 
ignores  also  the  dependence  of  action  on  aroused  conviction 
and  of  conviction  on  aroused  emotion.     It  is  not  the  preach- 
er's primal  task  to  present  the  rules  of  duty  in  detail,  but  to 
present  and  enforce  the  principles  of  duty  and  to  stimulate 
to  action  by  stirring  conviction  and   emotion.     Much   that 
might  be  said  about  the  hortatory  conclusion  were  better 
said  in  a  discussion  of  the  hortatory  type  of  preaching  in 
general.     But  a  few  considerations  are  especially  pertinent 
to  the  conclusion. 

(i)  The  most  effective  hortation  rests  upon  a  didactic 
basis.  Successful  appeal  presupposes  a  solid  foundation. 
Strong,  well-directed,  rational  emotion,  the  only  kind  that  it 
is  desirable  to  excite  in  a  worshipping  or  in  fact  in  any 
other  kind  of  assembly,  cannot  be  secured  without  soHd 
ground  in  intelligence.  A  mental  movement  that  increases 
in  strength  is  desirable.  Neither  preacher  nor  hearer  is 
ready  for  effective  exhortation  without  suitable  mental  prep- 
aration. We  are  disgusted  with  perfervid  explosions  that 
seem  to  have  no  basis.  We  look  with  amazement  and  dis- 
trust upon  a  man  who  has  no  rational  justification  for  his 
heat  and  sweat.  It  is  unfortunate  that  what  is  called  ''pubit 
emotion"  should  be  regarded  as  synonymous  with  unintelli- 
gence  and  unreaHty.  A  worked-up  emotion  is  a  most  unde- 
sirable product  because  it  is  irrational  and  unethical. 

(2)     Definiteness  and  pertinence  are  essential  in  all  effec- 


400  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

tive  appeal.  A  direct  appeal  presupposes  the  direct  appli- 
cation of  some  particular  moral  truth  or  some  specific  phase 
of  it.  The  previous  discussion  must  lay  the  foundation  for 
it.  Exhortation  on  the  basis  of  generality  is  wholly  incon- 
sequential. Something  specific  is  presupposed  with  respect 
to  which  the  appeal  is  made.  What  is  specific  is  direct  and 
what  is  direct  is  forceful.  A  generalized  hortation  has  no 
mark  and  no  shot. 

(3)  Reality  is  the  primal  moral  virtue  of  exhortation. 
Appeal  that  is  intelligent,  pertinent,  direct  and  specific  will 
be  natural,  and  as  natural  real.  No  exhortation  will  ever 
be  effective  that  does  not  rest  upon  a  psychological  and 
ethical  basis.  Mere  intellectual  enthusiasm,  product  of  cum- 
ulative mental  excitation  and  interest  in  the  subject  discussed 
is  not  enough,  although  this  is  presupposed  and  is  of  primal 
importance.  But  there  must  be  a  genuine  love  of  the  truth 
as  working  truth  and  a  genuine  love  for  men  as  well.  Other- 
wise we  shall  have  only  a  species  of  professional  hortation. 
It  is  a  genuine  moral  devotion  to  the  truth,  truth  as  a  per- 
sonal moral  interest  and  loving  devotion  to  the  welfare  of 
men  that  are  necessary  to  save  preaching  from  profession- 
alism. 

(4)  Concentration  is  essential  to  cogent  appeal.  If  it  be 
direct  and  specific  it  is  the  more  likely  to  be  concentrated. 
All  conclusion  may  well  be  compact  and  succinct.  Under 
normal  conditions  it  will  be.  The  sentences  are  likely  to  be 
shorter  and  more  abrupt.  We  crowd  more  into  them. 
Note  the  last  sentences  of  Robertson's  sermons.  The  struc- 
ture of  the  sentences,  the  vocabulary,  the  figures  of  speech 
are  more  intense  than  in  other  parts  of  the  sermon.  Espe- 
cially condensed  should  be  the  conclusion  by  appeal.  It  is 
natural  that  it  should  be  and  naturalness  is  what  we  want, 
for  naturalness  is  reality.  A  few  terse  sentences  dropped 
like  red-hot  coals  into  the  mind  and  heart  may  effect  amazing 


THE  CONCLUSION  401 

results.  Sometimes  the  most  impressive  thing  possible  is  a 
final  repetition  of  the  text,  especially  if  it  be  in  itself  impres- 
sive, and  if  it  comes  laden  with  the  cumulative  impressions  of 
the  discussion.  If  a  sermon  does  justice  to  an  impressive 
text  it  will  come  back  upon  the  hearer  with  tenfold  power 
at  the  end.  Sometimes  a  brief  snatch  of  poetry,  a  line  of 
some  hymn  full  of  deep  religious  feeling,  a  passage  of  Scrip- 
ture cognate  with  the  text,  a  short  utterance  of  hope  or  of 
foreboding,  a  brief  appeal  to  action,  a  short  utterance  of 
prayer,  an  ejaculation,  an  apostrophe, — all  this  if  the  ground 
be  well  laid  may  sweep  the  hearer  up  quite  to  the  gate  of 
heaven.  But  whatever  it  be,  its  effectiveness  will  depend  on 
its  brevity  and  concentration.  If  the  sermon  has  already 
done  its  needed  work,  the  last  thirty  seconds  will  be  laden 
with  the  cumulative  energy  of  the  previous  thirty  minutes. 


CHAPTER    VI 

THE   RHETORICAL   FORM 

Structural  form  is  confessedly  our  chief  interest  in  the 
discussion  of  methods  of  homiletic  art.  But  formal  homi- 
letics  legitimately  includes  questions  of  rhetorical  and  ora- 
torical expression.  The  latter  receives  but  little,  doubtless 
too  little,  attention  in  our  day.  But  it  is  best  taught  in  the 
class-room  by  modern  experts  in  the  art  of  expression  and 
a  collation  of  oratorical  commonplaces  by  one  who  knows 
but  little  about  the  subject  would  be  of  small  value  to  our 
discussion.  The  study  of  rhetorical  form  also  was  formerly 
regarded  as  of  more  importance  than  it  is  now.  The  reasons 
are  many.  The  study  of  language  does  not  hold  the  place  it 
once  held  in  our  educational  processes.  In  the  widening  of 
the  field  of  knowledge  the  pressure  of  other  departments  has 
made  itself  felt  in  the  sphere  of  linguistics.  The  physical 
sciences  have  asserted  their  claims  and  now  the  so-called 
social  sciences  are  at  the  front.  There  is  less  time  for  rhe- 
torical studies  and  less  importance  is  naturally  attached  to 
them.  Men  are  after  what  they  regard  as  more  practical 
branches  of  knowledge.  What  to  say  is  of  more  importance 
than  how  to  say  it.  The  study  of  ancient  and  foreign  lan- 
guages has  largely  displaced  the  study  of  our  own,  and  even 
in  the  recent  revival  of  the  study  of  English  in  our  fitting 
schools  and  colleges  the  literary  interest  in  the  comprehen- 
sive sense  dominates  the  more  specific  rhetorical  interest. 
It  may  be  questioned  whether  educated  men  write  and  speak 
English  as  well  as  educated  men  a  hundred  or  even  fifty 
years  ago. 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  403 

The   newspaper   press   has   had   its   influence.       Thought 
reaches  us  more  fully  through  the  eye  than  through  the  ear, 
and  what  addresses  the  eye  is  differently  expressed  from  that 
which  addresses  the  ear.     He  who  writes  without  reference 
to  speaking,  Hke  a  newspaper  reporter  or  editor,  may  easily 
fall  into  negligent  habits  in  his  use  of  language.     There  is 
doubtless    an    improvement    in    newspaper    EngHsh    but    in 
general  it  is  very  poor  English.     We  see  the  results  in  pulpit- 
speech.     What  the  preacher  says  is  the  chief  thing  of  im- 
portance.    There  is  even  a  prejudice  against  the  discussion 
of   pulpit    style.       There   is    a    reaction    against    rhetorical 
standards,  and  the  whole  subject  of  rhetorical  form  falls  into 
neglect,  as  if  it  were  no  matter  how  a  man  says  his  say  if 
only  he  have  something  to  say.     Somehow  it  will  manage  to 
say  itself.     The  pulpit  has  generally  been  in  conflict  with  so- 
called    secular    rhetoric    and    oratory.     Its    history    shows    a 
singular  succession  or  series  of  approximations  towards  and 
of   revulsions   from   the   secular   standards.       Questions   of 
matter  and  tone  are,  of  course,  always  of  supreme  impor- 
tance.    Sincerity  and  reality  are  the  cardinal  virtues  of  the 
man  who  speaks  for  Christ.     But  preaching  that  minimizes 
the  value  of  literary  form  can  never  be  the  best  type  of 
preaching.     The  pulpit  can  not  emancipate  itself  from  the 
laws  of  human  speech  as  it  can  not  from  the  laws  of  human 
thought  and  feeling.     Preaching  is  speech  of  the  highest  and 
noblest  type.     It  should  be  worthy  of  itself.     Let  us  there- 
fore consider  this  question  a  Httle  more  fully. 

I.    The  Claims  of  Rhetorical  Culture 

I.  The  relation  of  thought  to  speech  accentuates  the 
importance  of  rhetorical  culture.  The  closeness  of  connec- 
tion necessitates  the  culture  of  form  in  the  interest  of  sub- 
stance, as  well  as  of  the  culture  of  substance  in  the  interest 


404  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

of  form.  What  one  says  has  intimate  connection  with  the 
manner  in  which  he  says  it.  Ratio  and  oratio  are  two  sides 
of  the  same  thing.  One  suggests  substance,  the  other  form, 
but  they  are  organically  one.  The  science  of  language  is 
one  phase  of  the  science  of  thought.  Max  Miiller,  the  philo- 
logian,  wTOte  a  work  on  the  science  of  thought  from  the 
philological  point  of  view,  and  John  Locke,  the  philosopher, 
found  it  necessary  in  dealing  with  thought  to  consider  its 
relation  to  language.  He  says,*  "I  find  that  there  is  so  close 
a  connection  between  ideas  and  words,  and  our  abstract 
ideas  and  general  words,  have  so  constant  a  relation  one 
to  another,  that  it  is  impossible  to  speak  clearly  and  distinctly 
of  our  knowledge,  which  all  consists  in  propositions,  without 
considering  first,  the  nature,  use  and  significance  of  lan- 
guage." "Style"  at  first  meant  a  man's  pen-stylus.  Then  it 
came  to  mean  penmanship,  chirography  or  manner  of 
writing  with  a  pen.  A  close  connection  is  etymologically 
suggested  here.  Pen-man-ship.  Pen,  the  instrument  used. 
Man,  the  agent  using  it.  Ship,  shape,  form  or  method  in 
which  the  pen  is  used,  as  disclosed  by  the  product  of  use. 
Penmanship  is  the  method  in  which  a  man  uses  the  pen. 
Here  is  a  basis  for  the  notion,  often  doubtless  over-stated, 
that  a  man  discloses  his  personal  peculiarities  in  his  hand- 
writing. But  at  last  the  word  style  naturally  comes  to  mean 
the  way  in  which  a  man  expresses  himself  in  language.  The 
close  connection  between  the  man  and  his  method  of  expres- 
sion is  thus  taken  up  into  this  higher  meaning.  We  have  no 
longer  a  merely  physiological  and  relatively  mechanical  con- 
nection between  the  man  and  his  pen,  but  a  psychological  and 
even  ethical  connection  between  the  man  and  his  speech. 
Style,  therefore,  is  more  than  a  manner  of  expression.  It 
is  a  mental,  moral,  emotional,  aesthetic  product,  formulated, 
incorporated  in  language.     In  the  Hebrew  language  a  man's 


♦Essay  on  the  Human  Understanding.     Book  III,  Chap.  27. 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  405 

name  stands  for  the  man  himself.  It  is  etymologically  the 
"sign"  of  what  is  in  the  man.  The  close  connection  bietween 
the  man  and  the  manifold  forms  of  his  self-manifestation, 
among  them  his  speech,  lies  at  the  basis  of  this  word.  The 
Latin  word  "fatum"  suggests  this  connection.  The  word 
spoken  is  the  fixed  sign  of  the  unalterable  force  behind  of 
which  the  word  spoken  is  an  embodiment.  The  Greek  word 
prjlia  means  both  speech  and  the  thing  spoken.  The 
word  and  the  matter  of  the  word  are  identified.  Think  and 
thing  are  perhaps  allied  in  significance.  To  think  is  to  thing. 
To  think  something  is  to  do  something.  The  product  of 
mental  activity  is  the  form  in  which  the  thought  embodies 
itself.  The  form  is  the  thing  thought  as  embodied  in  the 
word  uttered.  The  word  is  that  in  which  the  reality  of  the 
thought  is  actualized.  So  then,  we  think  ourselves  out  into 
words  and  thus  come  to  think  in  words.  Limitation  as  to 
capacity  for  expression  in  language  involves  Hmitation  as  to 
capacity  for  thought.  Absolute  incapacity  for  speech,  or 
for  some  form  of  expression  that  is  a  measurable  substitute 
for  it,  would  involve  a  corresponding  incapacity  for  definite 
thought.  Mr.  George  P.  Marsh  reminds  us  somewhere  in 
his  Lectures  on  the  English  Language  that  we  remember 
our  thoughts  more  definitely  than  our  sensations  and  emo- 
tions for  the  reason  that  the  former  secure  greater  distinct- 
ness in  consciousness  and  so  leave  a  stronger  impression 
upon  us  because  of  their  connection  with  a  definite  form  of 
words.  For  the  same  reason  perhaps  our  uttered  words, 
whether  vocalized  or  written,  are  more  distinctly  recalled 
than  our  unuttered  words.  It  is  said  of  Louis  Napoleon  that 
he  always  wrote  out  on  a  slip  of  paper  the  object  of  thought 
he  wished  to  be  sure  of  remembering,  then  read  it  over  and 
tore  up  the  sHp.  This  invariably  fixed  the  thing  in  his  mind. 
Possibly  too  it  is  for  something  the  same  reason  that  our 
acts  stand  out  more  definitely  as  objects  of  thought  and  are 


4o6  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

more  readily  recalled  than  the  unformulated  thoughts,  feel- 
ings, convictions  and  purposes  that  lie  behind  them.  The 
act  objectifies  what  lies  subjectively  behind  it.  It  puts  it 
into  form.  And  it  may  be  that  for  this  reason  in  part  the 
outward  act  has  a  more  powerful  influence  on  character  than 
the  unacted  thought  or  purpose  behind  it.  Some  men,  per- 
haps most  men,  more  readily  commit  to  memory  their 
uttered  or  written  thoughts  than  those  that  are  unuttered  or 
unwritten.  The  contents  of  a  manuscript  that  have  been 
orally  uttered  in  the  process  of  writing  are  more  readily 
retained  in  the  memory  than  they  would  be  if  unvocalized. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  memoriter  preachers  vocalize  their 
sentences  in  the  process  of  composition.  The  connection 
between  thought  and  speech  is  most  intimate  and  vital  in  the 
first  moments  of  production.  It  may  require  positive  effort 
and  perhaps  changed  conditions  to  reproduce  subsequently 
the  same  close  connection.  This  is  one  reason  why  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  repeat  an  old  sermon  successfully.  It  demands  some 
change  in  the  manuscript  or  a  new  congregation  in  order  to 
reproduce  the  first  impression.  The  reason  why  Whitefield 
could  preach  his  old  sermons  with  undiminished  effective- 
ness was  that  he  always  had  a  new  audience  and  by  the 
power  of  feeling  and  imagination  was  able  to  re-wed  thought 
to  the  words  uttered.  We  see  the  principle  illustrated  in 
our  confessions  of  faith.  The  reason  why  the  old  creeds  fail 
to  affect  us  is  that  the  words  have  no  longer  vital  connection 
with  our  religious  thoughts,  feelings  and  convictions.  We 
must  have  new  confessions  in  order  to  hold  the  connection 
between  thought  and  words.  The  value  of  feeling  and 
imagination  in  vitalizing  the  relation  between  thought  and 
speech  is  illustrated  by  the  successful  evangelistic  preacher. 
Here  in  part  is  the  power  of  poetic  utterance.  Thought 
here  secures  a  more  vital  connection  with  speech  through 
the    energizing    power    of    feeling    and    imagination.       The 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  407 

reason  why  an  eye-witness  is  better  than  an  ear-witness  is 
that  by  the  stir  of  feeling  and  imagination  he  is  able  to  repro- 
duce what  he  has  seen  in  more  vivid  language.  He  is  able 
to  vitalize  the  relation  of  thought  and  speech.  Here  in  part 
is  the  secret  of  dramatic  power.  The  actor  not  only  repro- 
duces inwardly  an  imagined  state  of  mind  and  feeling,  but 
he  makes  them  real  and  effective  by  an  utterance  correspon- 
ding. He  effects  so  close  a  unification  of  thought,  feeling 
and  speech  that  he  can  talk  as  well  as  think  and  feel  like 
another  person. 

The  cultivation  of  rhetorical  form,  then,  is  largely  the 
cultivation  of  what  lies  back  of  it  and  is  vital  to  it.  This  is 
significant  for  the  culture  of  what  may  be  called  a  pulpit  style. 
Such  a  style  will  have  certain  peculiarities  of  its  own.  This 
point  will  reappear  further  on.  The  point  just  here  is  that 
the  importance  of  the  culture  of  rhetorical  form  for  the 
pulpit  is  the  importance  of  what  lies  back  of  it.  It  is  easy  to 
lose  sight  of  this  close  connection  between  substance  and 
form.  This  may  in  part  account  for  the  relative  neglect  of 
questions  of  rhetorical  form  in  preaching.  If  substance  and 
form  may  be  treated  as  if  they  were  independent  of  each 
other,  it  is  no  wonder  that  substance  should  be  valued  at 
the  expense  of  form.  It  is  indeed  a  creditable  thing  that  an 
educated  man  should  not  be  willing  to  become  a  literary 
pedant.  For  literary  pedantry  consists  in  disproportionate 
attention  to  form  as  such  and  in  treating  it  in  a  merely 
analytical  and  external  manner.  We  save  the  literary  prod- 
uct and  the  literary  man,  we  elevate  the  whole  tone  of  any 
species  of  literature  or  form  of  utterance,  we  rescue  it  from 
pedantry  on  the  one  side,  and  on  the  other  side  we  rescue 
the  preacher  from  a  supercilious  contempt  of  questions  of 
rhetorical  form,  by  reemphasis  of  the  very  familiar  but 
much-ignored  fact  that  substance  and  form  are  inseparable. 
The  study  of  literary  form  becomes,  thus,  one  of  the  most 


4o8  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

interesting  and  valuable  studies  in  which  a  scholar  can 
engage.  But  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  one  does  not 
become  an  effective  preacher  simply  by  cultivating  his  intel- 
ligence, imagination,  feelings  and  moral  and  religious  life. 
One  may  be  a  good  thinker,  a  good  theologian,  and  a  well- 
trained  man  in  general  and  yet  be  a  poor  preacher.  One 
may  be  a  very  pious  and  devout  and  enthusiastic  man  and 
yet  be  a  poor  minister  of  religion.  One  must  study  literary 
form  as  such.  In  fact  one  who  trains  himself  in  the  art  of 
expression  may  strengthen  his  capacity  for  exact  thinking 
by  the  very  processes  of  his  training.  Emerson  early  formed 
the  habit  of  examining  his  thoughts  with  reference  to  their 
expression.  This  involved  the  counter-process  of  examining 
his  expression  with  reference  to  his  thoughts.  Expression 
was  an  important  interest  in  all  his  culture.  "It  is  not 
knowledge  we  need,"  he  said,  "but  vent."  His  thought  was 
conditioned  by  the  form  it  was  to  take.  His  habit  of  reflec- 
tion was  conditioned  by  his  habit  of  dehberate  expression. 
A  man's  style  does  not  take  care  of  itself.  It  must  be 
trained,  and  as  it  is  trained  it  will  affect  what  lies  behind  it 
and  must  be  transmitted  by  it.  The  good  stylist  will  always 
have  the  advantage  of  the  man  who  fails  in  this  respect, 
although  the  latter  may  be  superior  in  his  native  endow- 
ments. It  is  not  substance  alone  that  makes  a  classic.  The 
classic  is  of  chief  value  not  for  its  matter  of  thought  but  fon 
its  perfection  of  form.  The  best  classics  with  all  their  seem- 
ing of  spontaneity  and  freedom  are  the  product  of  long 
and  laborious  elaboration.  Good  form  does  not  always 
presuppose  the  weightiest  and  most  original  substance  of 
thought,  although  proper  attention  to  form  will  surely 
influence  the  quality  of  thought,  and  it  is  certainly  true  that 
bad  form  indicates  defective  mental  work.  Inexact 
and  obscure  speech  always  involves  defective  mental 
discrimination. 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  409 

2.  This  leads  to  the  suggestion  that  the  preacher's 
responsibility  as  a  public  teacher  accentuates  the  claims  of 
rhetorical  culture.  No  one  can  teach  correctly  who  uses 
languages  incorrectly.  We  see  the  need  of  it  in  the  legal 
profession.  No  lawyer  can  succeed  who  does  not  express 
himself  in  clear,  accurate,  forcible  language.  We  see  the 
need  in  our  legislative  assemblies.  They  are  composed 
largely  of  half-educated  men,  who  have  no  mastery  of  the 
English  language.  Much  legislation  exhibits  gross  ignor- 
ance not  only  of  facts  and  principles  but  of  language.  It  is 
generally  the  trained  lawyer  of  our  legislative  bodies  that 
saves  them  from  the  disgrace  of  crude  legislation.  It  would 
be  well  if  all  legislation  were  submitted  for  final  revision  to 
a  committee  of  linguistic  experts,  as  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  submitted.  We  need  a  more  thorough 
study  of  the  English  language,  not  merely  of  English  litera- 
ture, in  all  our  public  schools.  No  nation  can  remain  a 
worthy  representative  of  civilization  whose  public  leaders  are 
ignorant  of  their  mother  tongue.  The  degeneracy  of  our 
public  men  in  this,  as  in  other  respects,  is  bodeful.  Pulpit- 
speech  is  not  technical,  but  the  teaching  of  the  pulpit  de- 
mands not  only  careful  thinking  but  careful  statement.  The 
correctness  of  a  man's  teaching  depends  on  his  use  of  lan- 
guage. The  truth  the  preacher  presents  is  important.  It 
exacts  closely  upon  the  medium  of  its  transmission.  On 
moral  as  well  as  aesthetic  grounds  the  form  should  answer  to 
the  quality  of  thought.  There  are  certain  qualities  of  speech 
that  are  eminently  appropriate  to  the  pulpit.  At  an  early 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  pulpit,  the  special  de- 
mands of  Christian  truth  upon  its  form  of  presentation  were 
recognized.  Augustine's  discussion*  was  based  on  solid 
rhetorical  principles  and  is  not  without  value  today.  The 
worthier    one's    conception    of    the    importance    of    Christian 


*  De  Doctrina  Christiana,  part  IV. 


410  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

truth  the  worthier  his  conception  of  its  form  will  be.  The 
object  of  Christian  preaching  also  accentuates  the  signifi- 
cance of  form.  It  is  the  production  of  character  and  the 
regulation  of  conduct  by  the  presentation  of  truth  to  the 
heart  and  conscience  as  well  as  to  the  mind.  Other  speak- 
ers deal  with  relatively  transient  results.  The  preacher  deals 
with  results  that  are  permanent  and  he  is  responsible  with 
respect  to  the  instruments  that  are  fitted  to  produce  these 
results.  By  his  words  shall  he  be  justified  and  by  his  words 
shall  he  be  condemned.  It  is  "the  King's  English"  that  is 
committed  to  him.  Surely  no  man  who  worthily  represents 
the  sanctities  of  human  speech  may  "murder"  or  abuse  or 
degrade  "the  King's  English."  People  have  a  right  to  de- 
mand that  the  man  who  speaks  to  them  on  the  weighty 
matters  of  religion  shall  speak  worthily,  and  in  such  a  way  that 
they  will  correctly  understand  and  feel  the  force  of  the  truth. 
The  reason  why  some  men  not  thoroughly  educated  speak 
with  great  power  not  only  to  the  so-called  common  people 
but  to  people  of  the  best  culture,  is  that  they  have  learned, 
and  never  unlearned,  to  speak  the  English  language  in  a 
clear,  idiomatic,  simple  and  forceful  manner.  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  political  life  and  Mr.  Spurgeon  in  ministerial  life 
are  notable  examples.  Such  men  as  John  Bunyan  show 
what  can  be  done  with  the  EngHsh  language.  Greek  and 
Roman  orators  knew  the  love  of  the  people  for  their  native 
tongue  and  they  cultivated  it  with  enthusiasm.  Preachers 
might  well  take  a  lesson  from  them.  If  one  would  win  the 
hearts  of  the  people  he  must  know  something  of  the  magic 
of  their  language.  A  simple,  clear,  idiomatic,  pithy  type  of 
English  would  greatly  strengthen  the  pulpit.  Increase  in 
the  extemporaneous  method  of  preaching  may  result  in 
undervaluation  of  questions  of  rhetorical  form.  It  is  only 
careful  literary  culture  that  will  save  preaching  from 
deterioration. 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  411 

3.  The  preacher's  responsibility  as  a  professional  man 
to  the  general  public  has  by  suggestion  already  been  antici- 
pated, but  may  well  receive  additional  recognition.  The  cul- 
ture of  some  professions  does  not  find  its  best  expression  in 
public  speech  and  the  speaking  professions  vary  in  this 
regard.  But  the  entire  training  of  the  preacher  looks 
toward  his  function  as  a  public  speaker.  He  is  properly 
assumed  to  represent  preeminently  the  results  of  liberal  cul- 
ture, especially  in  the  domain  of  speech.  No  audience  will 
or  should  tolerate  in  the  pulpit  what  is  accepted  in  the  court- 
room, or  in  the  legislative  assembly,  or  on  the  platform  or 
stump  or  even  in  the  lecture  room.  It  is  the  character  of 
the  vocation  that  exacts  this  superiority. 

The  relation  of  the  pulpit  to  the  press  accentuates  this  pro- 
fessional responsibility.  Oral  utterance  has  been  and  still 
is  a  great  power.  Trained  speech  has  done  much  of  the 
World's  best  work.  Its  power  seems  somewhat  lessened  in 
our  day.  But  its  insignificance  is  not  demonstrated.  The 
press,  powerful  as  it  is,  can  never  displace  good  public  speech. 
The  ultimate  value  of  the  press  itself  will  depend  upon  the 
quality  of  public  speech.  The  platform  and  the  pulpit  are 
behind  the  press.  If  these  great  popular  forces  should  fail 
the  press  would  sink  into  insignificance  or  degradation. 
The  pulpit  is  still  the  sphere  for  most  effective  public  address. 
It  is  still  the  throne  of  the  church.  Rhetorical  and  oratorical 
standards  have  changed.  The  old  standards  will  not  be  re- 
called. But  the  need  of  efTective  speech  in  the  pulpit  has 
not  changed. 

As  an  educated  man,  the  preacher  is  responsible  for  the 
preservation  of  the  purity  and  power  of  his  mother  tongue. 
It  is  a  sacred  inheritance,  and  is  a  special  charge  for  those 
whose  vocation  necessitates  a  constant  use  of  it.  The 
preacher  deals  with  the  loftiest  ideal  realities.  The  exaltation 
of  his  calling  exacts  upon  the  exaltation  of  his  instruments. 


412  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

Language  is  at  its  best  in  its  association  with  religion. 
Religion  should  save  it  from  degradation.  A  classic  like 
our  English  Bible  is  a  treasure  to  be  guarded  and  worthily 
used.  The  tendency  towards  the  corruption  of  language 
intensifies  the  responsibility.  ]\Iany  agencies  are  at  work  in 
this  line.  Mr.  George  P.  Marsh*  speaks  of  the  connection 
between  the  debasement  of  national  character  and  the  de- 
basement of  language  as  illustrated  by  the  French  and  Italian 
languages.  In  this  country  democratic  life  absorbs  all  de- 
generative influences,  the  influence  of  foreigners,  of  the 
ignorant  classes,  of  commercial,  political  and  industrial  life, 
and  of  the  vicious  classes.  The  press  is  one  of  the  sources 
of  corruption  in  the  use  of  language.  Mr.  Richard  Grant 
White  charges  that  we  are  suffering  from  newspaper  Eng- 
lish. Restless,  ambitious,  self-conceited,  vulgar,  mercenary, 
half-educated  men,  he  charges,  have  to  a  large  extent  the 
handling  of  our  public  journals.  It  is  less  true  today  than 
when  he  wrote.  But  it  is  still  measurably  true.  DeQuincy, 
in  almost  savage  style,  makes  similar  charges  against  the 
newspaper  press  of  England.  He  charges  that  through  this 
influence  "an  artificial  dialect  has  come  into  play  as  the 
dialect  of  ordinary  life."  But  it  should  be  remembered  that 
the  press  reflects  to  a  considerable  degree  the  habits  and 
tastes  of  the  general  public.  If  the  press  is  flippant  and 
irreverent  and  artificial,  it  is  an  index  of  the  character  of  the 
people  that  support  it.  If  the  people  become  flippant  and 
unreal,  its  language  can  not  preserve  its  dignity  and 
strength  and  purity.  The  press  has  caught  a  certain  tone 
of  flippancy  and  vulgarity  from  a  class  of  literary  men  mis- 
named realists.  It  appears  in  a  droll,  grotesque  waggery 
miscalled  humor.  Responsible  men  should  rescue  language 
from  such  degradation.  The  pulpit  is  especially  responsible 
to  resist  the  tendency  to  vulgarize  it. 

*  Lectures  on  the  English  Language  X  and  XL 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  413 

H.  Professional  Factors  in  Rhetorical  Form 
I.  The  Common  Factor.  There  must  always  be  a  com- 
mon use  of  a  language  that  is  common.  All  professions  use 
it  in  much  the  same  way.  All  types  of  oratory  have  elements 
that  are  common.  The  speech  of  the  English  Parliament  is 
much  like  that  of  the  English  pulpit.  French  pulpit  oratory 
is  strikingly  like  French  deliberative  or  forensic  oratory. 
French  preachers  have  perhaps  been  more  decisively  influ- 
enced by  the  standards  of  secular  rhetoric  and  oratory  than 
those  of  any  other  nation.  But  we  find  something  corre- 
sponding in  this  country.  There  is  an  American  type  of 
oratory.  It  is  conditioned  by  the  peculiarities  of  our 
national  character  and  life,  temperamental  peculiarities,  read- 
ing habits,  influence  of  the  public  press,  immaturity,  free- 
dom, bulkiness,  lack  of  the  habit  of  close  discrimination, 
political  and  commercial  life.  The  pulpit  discloses  its  par- 
ticipation in  what  is  common  in  our  speech.  It  has  certain 
elements  of  freedom,  of  idiomatic  homeliness,  of  range  and 
variety  that  are  not  so  noticeable  in  the  preaching  of  other 
countries.  Modifications  in  theology  and  in  the  methods  of 
preaching  in  different  periods,  in  different  sections  of  the 
country  and  in  different  religious  communions  have  resulted 
in  bringing  American  preaching  to  something  approximating 
a  common  type.  The  study  of  rhetoric  in  our  day,  as  well 
as  the  tendency  towards  ecclesiastical  unification,  is  in  the 
direction  of  what  is  common.  Modern  rhetoric  is  simple 
and  unelaborate,  it  recognizes  the  fundamental  principles 
that  underlie  all  species  of  public  utterance  and  regards  them 
as  substantially  the  same.  The  structure  of  a  sermon  is  not 
generically  different  from  that  of  a  secular  oration  or 
address,  and  the  same  rhetorical  qualities  belong  to  each. 
This  is  to  say  that  the  laws  of  thought  and  of  speech  are 
much  the  same  in  all  realms  of  speech.  And  thus  in  what  is 
called  elocution.     We  object  to  what  is  known  as  a  pulpit 


414  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

manner.  It  should  conform  to  the  ordinary  standards  of 
delivery.  We  have  no  sacred  eloquence,  no  sacred  gesture 
or  posture,  and  no  sacred  rhetoric,  although  the  name  still 
lingers.  And  so  of  language.  Its  laws  are  the  same  for 
pulpit  and  platform.  There  is  no  sacred  grammar.  Or  if 
there  be,  it  is  all  sacred.  Language  is  not  a  class  product. 
It  is  a  common  possession.  The  fact  that  it  is  largely  a  con- 
ventional sign  accentuates  this  fact  that  we  must  use  it  every- 
where in  much  the  same  way.  And  yet  we  may  correctly 
speak  of  a  pulpit  style. 

2.  There  are  specific  professional  elements  of  rhetorical 
form.  The  sermon  as  a  rhetorical  product  differs  somewhat 
from  any  form  of  so-called  secular  address.  The  difference 
is  conditioned  partly  by  the  themes  with  which  the  preacher 
deals,  by  the  object  he  has  in  view  and  by  the  relation  of  the 
personality  of  the  speaker  to  both.  The  theme  is  distinc- 
tively ethical  and  religious  according  to  a  Christian  type,  and 
is  something  more  and  other  than  a  product  of  the  preacher's 
independent  thinking.  The  secular  address  has  no  such 
limitation.  The  object  is  to  secure  a  distinctively  Christian 
result.  Like  all  public  speech,  it  seeks  to  persuade,  but  the 
object  of  the  persuasion  is  different.  It  seeks  the  advance- 
ment of  personal  manhood  and  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The 
secular  address  seeks  the  earthly  welfare  of  the  individual 
and  of  the  social  body.  The  theme  and  the  aim  involve  also 
a  different  sort  of  audience.  In  the  one  case  it  is  a  worship- 
ping assembly.  The  chief  interest  is  not  the  speaker,  nor 
even  the  speech,  but  the  worship.  The  speech  is  the  instru- 
ment, the  worship  is  the  end,  or  rather  the  object  of  this 
worship  is  the  end.  In  the  other  case  we  have  an  assembly 
whose  prominent  interest  is  largely  in  the  speaker,  and  in  his 
subject,  but  ultimately  in  the  relation  of  both  to  some  per- 
sonal or  social  advantage.  In  the  pulpit  address,  also,  the 
relation  of  the  speaker  to  his  subject  and  his  object  is  closer 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  415 

than  in  the  case  of  the  secular  address.  In  the  former  not 
only  what  is  said  and  why  it  is  said,  but  who  says  it  is  of  far 
more  importance  than  in  the  latter.  The  subject  and  the 
object  exact  more  severely  upon  the  organ  of  utterance. 
A  close  harmony  between  subject,  object  and  agent  is  de- 
manded. The  preacher's  supreme  concern  must  be  with  the 
truth  he  brings,  with  the  object  he  aims  at,  with  himself  as 
the  organ  of  truth  and  with  the  condition  of  his  hearers.  It 
is  not  enough  that  he  make  the  hearer  believe  that  what  he 
says  is  true,  whether  it  be  true  or  not.  Nor  is  it  enough 
that  his  truth  be  a  mere  opinion.  He  must  bring  what  has 
been  brought  to  him  and  that  truth  must  have  a  validity  of 
its  own,  independently  of  his  own  opinion,  or  his  own  skill 
in  presenting  it,  and  it  must  at  the  same  time,  be  truth 
that  commends  itself  to  his  own  conscience  and  heart,  and 
to  the  conscience  and  hearts  of  his  hearers.  It  is  not  enough 
that  he  make  the  hearer  believe  that  the  object  he  seeks  is 
a  good  one.  His  object  must  stand  the  test  of  Christian 
criticism.  It  must  conform  to  the  demands  of  Christ,  in 
whose  name  he  speaks.  It  is  not  enough  that  he  make  the 
hearer  believe  that  he  is  a  good  man,  he  must  be  what  he  pro- 
fesses to  be,  and  what  his  master  and  his  cause  require  that  he 
should  be.  Hence  in  pulpit  speech  the  theme  and  the  cause 
are  far  more  dependent  on  the  man  than  in  secular  speech. 

Now  all  this  will  necessarily  and  inevitably  have  a  modify- 
ing influence  upon  pulpit  rhetoric  all  through.  The  theme, 
the  object,  the  occasion,  the  associations,  the  audience  con- 
dition a  distinctive  rhetorical  product,  and  thus  only  does  it 
become  fit  instrument  to  the  accompHshment  of  the  work  in 
hand. 

3.  But  how  do  the  conditions  of  pulpit  speech  afifect  a 
modification  in  it  as  a  rhetorical  product  and  what  will  be 
its  characteristics? 

(i)     They    afifect    the    preacher's    vocabulary.       Chris- 


4i6  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

tianity  has  created  and  consecrated  a  type  of  speech  fitted  to 
the  work  of  the  pulpit.  There  is  a  Christian  vocabulary. 
The  ideas  of  Christianity  are  incarnate  in  words  that  express 
their  innermost  reaHty.  In  its  use  of  the  Greek  language  it 
put  new  significance  into  old  words  and  consecrated  them 
to  new  service.  There  is  hardly  an  important  word  used 
that  does  not  undergo  modification.  But  it  effects  a  like 
modification  in  any  language  in  which  it  may  be  proclaimed. 
There  is  a  Christian  vocabulary  of  the  English  language. 
We  consecrate  certain  words  to  a  specifically  Christian  use. 
They  do  not  often  appear  in  secular  oratory,  and  when  they 
do  appear  there  they  are  accommodated.  Their  use  in  the 
way  of  rhetorical  accommodation  and  for  political  purposes, 
like  the  cross  and  the  crown  of  thorns  of  a  well-known  polit- 
ical speech,  seems  semi-sacrilegious  and  we  more  than  half 
suspect  the  tricks  of  the  demagogue  in  the  use.  We  have 
consecrated  a  vocabulary  as  we  have  the  pulpit  in  which  it 
is  used.  In  the  progress  of  Christian  theology  the  number 
of  these  terms  has  greatly  increased.  Every  profession  has 
its  own  terminology.  That  of  the  preacher  has  its  own  and 
it  can  not  get  on  without  it.  Words  once  technical  have 
ceased  to  be  so,  and  the  number  of  such  words  is  increasing. 
They  have  become  the  property  of  the  pulpit  and  the  con- 
gregation and  they  serve  their  best  uses  here,  although  they 
are  freely  used  in  the  personal  intercourses  of  the  Christian 
life.  There  is  a  "language  of  Canaan."  Christian  people 
understand  each  other  because  they  speak  this  language. 
The  criticism  of  the  Christian  vocabulary  of  the  pulpit,  of 
which  we  hear  much  in  our  day,  is  irrational.  If  it  were 
cant,  the  criticism  would  be  valid.  Rut  there  is  no  cant  in 
the  use  of  Christian  terms  that  still  have  a  meaning.  If  the 
meaning  changes,  the  preacher  has  only  to  interpret  the 
change.  To  deny  himself  the  use  of  a  term  that  is  fairly  well 
understood,  or  can  be  easily  interpreted,  were  folly.       Of 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  417 

course  terms  that  are  strictly  technical  do  not  belong  in  the 
pulpit.       It  were  worse  than  pedantry  to  use  such  terms. 
But  there  is  a  large  Christian  vocabulary  that  has  ceased  to 
be  technical.     The  use  of  such  a  vocabulary,  as  illustrated  by 
preachers   like   Mr.   Spurgeon,   greatly   enriches   preaching. 
What  the  preacher  needs  to  do  is  to  put  fresh  life  into  this 
vocabulary,  not  to  commit  it  to  the  rubbish  heap.     The  first 
thing  Christianity  does,  when  introduced  to  a  pagan  people, 
is  to  consecrate  its  language.     The  language  must  be  conse- 
crated before  the  people  can  be.     And  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity to  rescue  language  and  consecrate  it  to  holy  uses  is 
one  of  its  marvels.     It  not  only  creates  new  words  and  con- 
secrates old  ones,  but  elevates  the  whole  tone  of  language, 
and  the  possibilities  of  any  language,  as  of  any  man,  for 
enrichment  are  never  fully  realized  till  religion  gets  hold  of 
it.     It  elevates  the  speech  of  common  life.     It  gives  us  the 
"speech  that  is  seasoned  with  sah."     It  operates  so  uncon- 
sciously that  we  hardly  realize  it.     But  its  power  in  the  pul- 
pit   is    especially    marked.       The    themes    with    which    the 
preacher  deals,  and  the  tone  which  they  produce,  disclose 
their  influence  not  only  in  vocabulary  but  in  the  entire  char- 
acter of  speech. 

(2)  The  conditions  of  the  preacher's  work  influence  the 
entire  cukure  of  the  man  and  such  culture  is  behind  all  the 
forms  of  his  speech.  Paul  believed  in  a  sort  of  verbal 
inspiration.  The  style  in  which  the  message  is  conveyed  is 
appropriate  to  the  character  of  the  message.  We  need  not 
press  the  term  verbal  inspiration,  for  it  may  be  misleading. 
But  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  a  preacher's  culture  will  inev- 
itably condition  the  character  of  his  speech.  Let  us  see  how 
this  may  be. 

(a)  It  may  be  done  by  influencing  his  mental  powers. 
The  great  realities  of  religion  quicken  and  expand  the  mental 
faculties.     The  mind  itself  is^  greatened  that  grapples  with  a 


4i8  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

great  religious  theme.  We  see  this  even  in  ordinary  men. 
No  one  ever  comes  to  his  best  intellectually  without  the 
quickening  of  his  religious  manhood.  Recall  the  testimony 
of  Dr.  Bushnell  with  respect  to  the  influence  of  his  religious 
awakening  upon  his  mental  powers  and  thus  upon  his  literary 
style.*  What  quickens,  strengthens,  enlarges  and  dignifies 
the  mind  will  disclose  its  results  in  one's  speech.  Such 
speech  will  have  a  weight,  force,  dignity  and  suggestiveness 
that  were  otherwise  impossible. 

(b)  It  may  be  done  by  influencing  the  imagination.  The 
great  realities  of  Christianity  of  themselves  powerfully  appeal 
to  the  imagination.  They  are  supernatural  realities.  We 
must  interpret  the  term  supernatural,  and  it  must  have  a 
greatly  modified  significance.  But  to  deny  its  reality  in  toto 
is  to  deny  Christianity  itself.  Without  supernatural  realities 
the  imagination  would  never  be  adequately  developed.  The 
choicest  products  of  Christianity  have  appeared  in  the  sphere 
of  the  imagination.  Supernatural  Christianity  is  behind  all 
best  Christian  art.  Note  its  idealistic  quality  as  contrasted 
with  the  realistic  quality  of  Greek  art.  If  the  world  were  to 
lose  its  grasp  of  Christian  supernaturalism  civilization  itself 
would  suffer  an  irreparable  loss.  Not  only  the  truths  and 
facts  of  Christianity,  but  the  forms  in  which  they  appear 
appeal  to  the  imagination.  They  are  themselves  largely 
forms  of  the  imagination.  How  mightily  all  this  aflfects 
human  speech !  It  is  because  of  the  influence  of  religion 
upon  the  imagination  that  pulpit  speech  becomes  the  noblest 
form  of  the  art  of  speech.  Nowhere  beyond  the  Christian 
pulpit  has  human  speech  ever  risen  to  such  heights.  No 
man  can  live  in  familiar  contact  with  such  lofty  realities  and 
with  the  forms  in  which  they  are  embodied  without  catching 
something  of  their  inspiration  and  reproducing  them  in  the 
quality  of   his    speech.     The   literary    style    of   many    great 

♦Life  and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell,  pages  199,  note,  and  207-210. 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  419 

preachers  has  been  modeled  under  this  influence.  Such 
preachers  as  Theodore  Parker  bear  witness.  A  good  pulpit 
style  is  product  of  the  dignity,  sobriety,  rationality,  imagina- 
tive symbolism  and  emotional  fervor  of  the  Christian  reve- 
lation. It  is  a  combination  of  the  intellectual,  the  ethical, 
the  emotional  and  imaginative  elements  of  style.  An  excess 
of  imaginative  and  emotional  exuberance  in  pulpit  speech  is 
as  foreign  to  a  true  method  of  interpreting  Christianity  as  a 
corresponding  exuberance  in  the  architecture  and  decoration 
of  our  churches.  A  certain  sobriety  and  chaste  simplicity 
are  demanded  in  the  one  as  in  the  other  case.  The  aim  of 
religion  is  ethical  and  the  imagination  must  always  be  the 
servant  of  the  truth.  But  an  imaginative  style  is  a  normal 
pulpit  product. 

The  prophetic  utterance  was  the  best  form  of  the  speech 
of  the  early  Christian  church.  It  was  a  combination  of  the 
reflective,  the  imaginative  and  the  emotional  elements.  And 
this  is  the  best  type  for  our  day. 

(c)  It  may  be  done,  as  has  already  been  indicated,  by 
influencing  the  emotions.  Preaching  is  the  work  of  a  man 
who  has  a  strong  emotional  interest  in  what  he  is  doing. 
Religion  stirs  the  strongest  and  purest  emotions  of  the  heart. 
But  it  is  rational  emotion.  "The  spirits  of  the  prophets  are 
subject  to  the  prophets."  It  is  not  a  normal  influence  of 
religion  that  stirs  the  feelings  without  touching  the  intelli- 
gence. The  Pentecostal  utterances  of  Christian  speech  were 
doubtless  highly  emotional.  It  was  a  natural  expression  of 
the  new  feelings  that  were  stirring  in  the  hearts  of  men.  We 
find,  however,  a  constant  tendency  to  regulate  emotion  by 
reflection.  The  later  and  more  approved  utterance  was  in 
the  form  of  the  "word  of  wisdom,"  and  "of  knowledge." 
And,  as  already  suggested,  of  prophecy.  Thus  preaching 
took  a  more  reasonable  and  intelligent  form,  although  with 
no  complete  suppression  of  emotion.    That  would  have  been 


420  THE   WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

to  "quench  the  spirit."  Normal  religious  emotion  is  not 
independent  of  the  imagination,  for  an  imaginative  utterance 
is  an  emotional  utterance.  But  clear,  correct  vision  steadies 
emotion.  The  ranter  is  not  a  normal  product  of  the  Chris- 
tian pulpit.  He  is  more  distinctively  a  heathen  product.  The 
prophet  who  raves  is  not  the  Christian  prophet.  But  neither 
on  the  other  side  is  a  one-sided  intellectual  type  of  speech  the 
normal  product  of  the  Christian  pulpit.  The  speech  in 
which  vision  and  judgment  regulate  feeling  and  in  which  feel- 
ing inspires  insight  and  intelligence,  the  speech  that  is  self- 
poised,  yet  earnest  and  earnest  yet  self-poised,  is  the  normal 
Christian  speech. 

(d)  It  may  be  done  by  influencing  the  moral  nature.  The 
pulpit  is  a  sphere  for  the  training  and  culture  of  one's  moral 
powers.  The  natural  effect  of  preaching  is  the  enrichment 
and  ennobling  of  character.  It  not  only  presupposes  that 
the  preacher  is,  but  it  tends  to  make  him,  an  earnest,  sincere, 
consecrated  man.  And  what  aflfects  character  affects  speech. 
"If  a  man  would  write  in  a  noble  style,  let  him  first  possess 
a  noble  soul,"  said  Goethe.  We  may  add:  No  such  soul  ever 
uttered  itself  in  words  that  have  wholly  failed  to  suggest  that 
nobility.  A  man's  speech  can  not  disguise  his  character  for 
any  considerable  length  of  time.  A  base  man  can  never 
handle  a  noble  type  of  speech.  Reverence,  dignity,  sincerity, 
benevolence,  integrity,  disclose  themselves  unconsciously 
and  inevitably  in  the  speech  of  a  man  whose  vocation  fur- 
nishes the  best  sphere  for  the  culture  of  these  qualities  and 
who  allows  it  to  work  its  legitimate  results.  All  the  higher 
ethical  qualities  of  style  are  naturally  developed  in  the  pulpit. 
Note  for  example  the  effect  of  a  strong  moral  purpose  upon 
energy  of  style.  The  man  whose  will  is  set  strongly  upon 
his  task  will  speak  with  concentrated  energy.  A  nerveless 
and  ignoble  type  of  speech  is  a  perverted  product  of  the 
Christian  pulpit. 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  421 

HI.  Methods  of  Rhetorical  Culture 
There  is  no  ideal  literary  style,  as  there  is  no  ideal  preach- 
ing in  general.  Every  preacher's  rhetorical  method  should 
be  his  own.  Which  is  to  say  that  it  should  be  natural.  Style 
is  a  concrete  reality,  not  an  abstract  conception.  It  is  this 
quality  of  naturalness  that  should  distinguish  it.  It  is  some- 
thing, therefore,  that  can  not  be  taught  by  rule,  nor  mechan- 
ically imitated.  We  speak  of  the  born  orator.  We  mean 
that  back  of  all  the  training  of  such  a  man  there  is  a  reason, 
in  his  make  up,  why  he  speaks  as  he  does  and  as  well 
as  he  does,  just  as  back  of  a  man's  physical  and  psychical 
training  there  is  a  reason  in  his  physical  and  psychical  con- 
stitution why  he  has  his  own  facial  expression  and  gait  and 
manners.  One  in  whom  the  native  forces  that  are  essential 
to  good  speech  are  strong  we  call  a  born  orator.  But  within 
the  limits  of  nature  style  may  be  cultivated.  The  born 
orator  must  become  the  trained  orator.  Good  qualities  may 
be  bettered  and  bad  ones  overcome.  The  history  of  oratory 
shows  what  training  may  do.  Richard  Grant  White  says 
that  John  Bunyan's  literary  style  could  not  have  been  bet- 
tered. But  it  was  bettered.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose 
that  there  can  be  anything  approximating  literary  or  rhe- 
torical or  oratorical  perfection,  without  most  laborious 
effort.  Let  us  look  at  some  of  the  conditions  and  methods 
of  the  rhetorical  culture. 

I.  It  is  natural  first  of  all  to  think  of  personal  training 
and  discipline.  No  man  has  a  well-trained  style  in  the  fullest 
and  best  sense  who  is  not  himself  a  well-trained  man.  A 
speaker  expresses  not  only  himself  in  his  style  but  the  results 
of  his  culture.  Personality  is  at  its  best  and  expresses  itself 
at  its  best  only  when  it  is  a  well-developed  and  well-disci- 
plined personality.  Training  from  without  is  not  enough. 
There  must  be  training  from  within.  It  is  a  vital  process. 
Without  a  free  and  vigorous  handling  from  within  of  one's 


422  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

powers  rhetorical  study  and  training  are  sure  to  result  in  an 
artificial  and  unreal  product. 

I  touch  here  once  more  upon  a  sphere  which  previously 
we  have  frequently  entered.  But  it  may  have  new  signifi- 
cance in  its  specific  relation  to  the  culture  of  rhetorical  form, 
(i)  Mental  culture  is  necessary  to  rhetorical  culture.  A 
man's  style  is  as  his  thought.  But  the  thought  is  as  the 
mind  that  produces  it.  The  culture  of  rhetorical  form  is 
therefore  primarily  the  culture  of  the  mind  that  generates 
the  thought  which  is  the  matter  of  the  form.  Three  mental 
requirements  are  essential  to  good  rhetorical  form,  and  they 
are  subject  to  indefinite  culture,  mental  freedom,  mental  pro- 
ductiveness, mental  order. 

In  our  best  and  most  effective  utterances  our  mental  fac- 
ulties move  freely.  A  hampered  mind  cannot  express  itself 
naturally,  because  not  freely.  The  mind  must  be  awakened 
from  within.  Recall  the  depressing  effect  of  rhetorical  criti- 
cism upon  the  mind  when  it  is  conscious  of  not  being  awake 
to  seize  and  sift  and  appropriate  the  good  of  it.  An  excess 
of  external  criticism  is  likely  to  result  in  a  slavish  imitation. 
There  comes  a  time  in  almost  every  man's  mental  history 
when  he  awakes  to  a  new  mental  experience.  It  may  come 
early  in  one's  student  life.  It  may  come  later.  Often  the 
experiences  of  practical  life  are  necessary  to  awaken  men 
from  within.  It  may  come  suddenly  as  a  sort  of  mental 
regeneration.  Better  were  it  if  it  came  earlier.  Happy  the 
teacher  who  has  the  skill  to  awaken  young  men  in  student 
days  from  their  slumbers.  Happy  the  man  who  finds  the 
teacher  who  can  awaken  him  to  a  knowledge  of  himself  and 
can  quicken  him  into  new  mental  life.  But  in  student  days 
most  young  men  fail  to  understand  themselves,  fail  to  get  at 
the  secret  of  their  strength,  fail  to  know  what  work  they  can 
do  best  or  how  best  to  do  it  and  fail  to  avail  themselves  to 
best  advantage  of  the  training  to  which  they  are  subjected. 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  423 

We  ofter  hear  men  say  that  they  have  in  subsequent  years 
been  obHged  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the  rhetorical 
and  homiletical  training  they  have  received  in  college  and 
divinity  schools.  The  explanation  of  all  this  is  evident. 
Their  training  was  too  formal,  too  external  and  it  became  a 
fetter.  It  was  the  call  of  life  that  awakened  them  from 
within,  and  forced  them  to  form  new  judgments  of  their 
already  acquired  knowledge.  Then  they  began  to  work  with 
freedom  and  facility  and  satisfaction.  They  are  at  last  upon 
their  feet.  They  have  found  themselves.  Their  methods  of 
working  seem  more  natural  to  them  because  their  innermost 
powers  have  been  awakened.  They  are  emancipated  from  the 
tyranny  of  external  rules,  and  they  work  unconsciously  in- 
line with  inwardly  regulative  principles.  Such  consciousness 
of  new  freedom  and  power  may  be  accompanied  by  too 
strong  a  reaction  against  former  teaching  and  training.  But 
their  thraldom  was  partly  their  own  fault.  Ministers  some- 
times arraign  the  homiletic  teaching  and  training  to  which 
they  were  subjected  in  the  divinity  school.  There  is  likely 
to  be  a  good  deal  of  injustice  in  this.  A  large  part  of  every 
man's  early  training  will  almost  necessarily  be  of  a  some- 
what formal,  routine  sort.  A  great  amount  of  drudgery  with 
small  things  is  necessary  to  any  man's  equipment.  We  must 
do  a  great  deal  that  seems  useless  and  the  result  of  which  we 
cannot  consciously  appropriate  at  the  time.  It  is  a  great 
mistake  to  suppose  that  all  this  is  utterly  useless  and  that 
time  spent  in  such  drudgery  was  wholly  wasted.  And  yet 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  waste  in  all  our  educative  processes, 
and  largely  for  the  reason  that  the  student  is  not  mentally 
awakened.  It  is  only  the  thoroughly  awakened  mind  that 
can  make  available  to  best  uses  the  products  of  any  kind  of 
training.  Impatience  with  most  scrupulous,  painstaking, 
toilful  effort  of  any  sort  in  one's  rhetorical  and  homiletic 
training  in  years  of  preparation  would  be  a  great  mistake. 


424  THE   WORK   OF   THE    PREACHER 

But  it  would  be  a  more  serious  mistake  for  one  not  to  learn 
that  he  must  find  out  how  to  use  his  training,  whatever  it  may 
be,  to  best  advantage.  And  it  is  greatly  to  be  hoped  that  no 
young  minister  will  be  obliged  to  wait  till  he  gets  out  into 
the  work  of  Hfe  before  he  awakens  to  such  knowledge  of 
himself,  his  gifts,  capacities  and  needs  as  will  enable  him  to 
make  useful  unto  the  utmost  whatever  training  he  may  get 
in  earlier  years.  Whatever,  then,  at  any  time  awakens  the 
mind  to  freedom  of  action  and  to  the  concentration  of  its 
forces  tends  to  the  production  of  those  qualities  of  style  that 
are  necessary  to  effectiveness  in  the  pulpit.  Such  awaken- 
ings often  result  in  a  sudden  and  marked  change  in  one's 
rhetorical  style.  Changes  in  the  style  of  the  preaching  of 
Chalmers,  Robertson  and  Bushnell  are  classic  illustrations. 
W^e  see  something  like  this  on  a  large  scale  in  the  revival  of 
a  national  literature.  An  awakening  of  the  national  mind 
emancipates  literature  from  its  formal,  imitative  and  lifeless 
character,  and  makes  it  a  new  power  among  the  people.  An 
age  of  literary  pedantry  gives  place  to  an  age  of  creative 
activity. 

Mental  fulness  and  productiveness  are  a  condition  of  good 
literary  form.  The  fuller  one  is  of  his  subject,  the  better, 
other  conditions  being  given,  will  he  express  himself.  Of 
course  men  differ  greatly  in  this  matter.  A  man  like  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  speaks  with  an  ease,  an  affluence  and  a  natural- 
ness because  of  his  enormous  intellectual  productiveness, 
that  were  impossible  for  the  ordinary  preacher.  But  any 
man  of  fair  equipment  may  enlarge  his  mental  resources,  and 
increase  his  producing  power  till  he  shall  find  increasing 
facility  of  expression.  We  are  told  that  the  mind  should 
never  be  forced.  Thought  that  has  value  will  come  freely. 
But  thought  that  is  laboriously  produced  may  win  for  itself 
at  last  a  free  and  easy  expression,  as  the  style  of  men  noted 
as  hard  workers  demonstrates.     A  mind  that  is  not  over- 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  425 

worked  and  jaded  should  be  whipped  into  vigorous  action. 
One  is  not  fully  himself  who  is  not  the  master  of  his  mental 
resources.  An  indolent  habit  of  mind  means  a  weak,  con- 
fused, unimpressive  habit  of  utterance.  A  desultory  habit 
limits  mental  energy  and  productiveness,  and  so  power  of 
expression.  The  mind  should  be  held  steadily  and  concen- 
tratedly  to  its  task.  Mental  concentration  means  mental 
vigor. 

Mental  training  by  conditioning  orderly  thought  also  be- 
comes tributary  to  rhetorical  form.  Orderly  thought  means 
clear  expression.  Perspicacity  is  back  of  perspicuity.  It 
means  also  naturalness  of  expression,  for  there  are  no  gaps 
or  unbridged  gulfs  of  thought  into  which  the  mind  plunges 
and  from  which  it  must  extricate  itself  by  a  blind  struggle 
that  contorts  rhetorical  expression.  It  means  also  forceful 
utterance,  for  thought  that  is  held  strictly  and  firmly  will 
express  itself  with  a  vigor  corresponding.  The  force  of 
mental  momentum  imparts  itself  to  the  style  of  speech.  As 
thought  kindles  in  its  orderly  movement,  speech  glows 
correspondingly.  Mental  disorder  is  mental  paralysis.  A 
mob  is  never  in  good  fighting  trim. 

(2)  Moral  culture  is  necessary  to  the  best  rhetorical  cul- 
ture. The  aims  and  purposes  of  a  man's  life  inevitably  affect^ 
his  speech.  What  lifts  one's  moral;  and  reHgious  nature  ele- 
vates and  ennobles  his  utterance.  It  may  do  it  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  directly  or  indirectly,  largely  unconsciously 
and  indirectly.  Moral  purpose  is  essential  to  effective 
preaching.  No  true  preacher  can  be  indifferent  as  to  results. 
The  best  preachers  are  students  of  methods  of  effectiveness 
on  moral  grounds.  To  produce  and  arrange  thought  is  not 
the  whole  problem.  A  man's  way  of  putting  his  thought  is 
an  important  matter,  and  the  man  who  makes  a  successful 
study  of  this  needs  behind  it  all  a  direct,  strong  moral  pur- 
pose.    People  are  ready  for  the  man  who  speaks  with  a  pur- 


426  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

pose  and  who,  therefore,  speaks  effectively.  The  rhetorician 
and  the  elocutionist  may  be  dangerous  teachers  for  the  man 
who  subjects  himself  to  them  without  putting  strong  moral 
purpose  into  his  work.  A  habit  of  moral  earnestness  may 
be  tributary  to  clearness  of  utterance.  It  knows  itself  as 
responsible  to  be  intelligible.  Important  interests  demand 
it.  The  man  who  honors  the  truth  and  loves  his  fellowmen 
will  wish  to  get  his  message  clearly  before  those  who  wait 
upon  his  ministry.  It  is  associated  with  that  quality  we  call 
fervor,  a  species  of  which  is  unction,  one  of  the  qualities  of 
energetic  utterance.  It  will  be  real,  not  professional  emo- 
tion. It  will  not  be  a  hothouse  exuberance  of  fancy,  but  it 
will  give  imagination  good  range.  Exactness  of  statement 
may  be  a  rhetorical  virtue  in  the  preacher.  But  the  speech 
of  a  man  who  is  in  dead  earnest  is  not  likely  to  be  so  severely, 
so  coldly  exact  as  to  be  ineffective.  Such  speech  is  remote 
from  the  ordinary  audience,  because  defective  in  emotional 
warmth  and  in  moral  cogency.  It  would  discredit  a  certain 
largeness  and  suggestiveness  which  the  use  of  the  imagina- 
tion and  feelings  impart  to  preaching.  There  are  preachers 
that  seem  to  be  afraid  of  their  emotions  and  of  their  imagina- 
tions. They  are  afraid  to  let  themselves  out  in  a  large  and 
suggestive  way.  They  whip  their  thoughts  soundly  in  order 
to  make  them  humble  and  tame.  They  shave  them  down  to 
the  bone,  so  that  no  fleshly  bloom  is  left  upon  them.  They 
get  rid  of  all  sail  and  all  steam  and  they  run  their  homiletic 
craft  under  the  bare  poles.  A  strong  moral  purpose  will 
save  a  man  from  such  ineffectiveness.  It  will  save  him  on 
the  other  hand  from  the  exaggerations  of  the  sensationalist 
or  the  emptiness  of  the  vendor  of  cant.  It  will  produce  a 
genuinely  earnest  type  of  speech  that  is  fervid  without  ex- 
travagance or  cant  or  without  intellectual  priggishness  or 
ethical  diletantism. 
And  such  speech  will  have  moral  pungency.     No  display 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  427 

here,  no  self-consciousness.  It  is  straight  speech.  The 
form  catches  the  reahty,  the  vitaHty,  of  thought,  feehng  and 
purpose  that  He  behind.  Frederick  Robertson  was  a 
preacher  of  this  sort. 

Sincerity  and  sobriety  also  are  qualities  inseparable  from 
such  speech.  A  preacher  must  be  forcible,  but  he  is  respon- 
sible for  the  sobriety  of  his  statements.  Insincerity  and  ex- 
travagances were  the  vices  of  classical  rhetoric  that  brought 
it  into  disfavor  with  the  Christian  church.  A  genuinely 
earnest  man  will  not  strain  after  emotional  eflfects.  Flip- 
pancy is  out  of  place  in  the  pulpit.  Men  like  Dean  Swift 
and  Robert  South  were  deficient  in  genuine  moral  earnest- 
ness and  sincerity.  Some  of  the  old  Puritan  preachers  even 
were  deficient  in  this  matter. 

2.  I  suggest  secondly  study  of  the  properties  of  good 
pulpit  style.  One  must  know  what  such  a  style  is,  must  have 
some  standard  wherewith  to  test  it.  Knowledge  of  a  rhe- 
torical defect  presupposes  knowledge  of  what  discloses  it  as 
a  defect  and  knowledge  of  a  rhetorical  virtue  presupposes 
knowledge  of  what  vindicates  it  as  such.  A  preacher  should 
know  his  rhetorical  defects  and  should  be  intolerant  of  them. 
It  is  easy  to  slip  into  faulty  habits  of  speech.  In  the  pres- 
sure of  modern  life  it  is  difficult  to  maintain  a  high  rhetorical 
standard.  It  is  well  for  a  preacher,  especially  in  the  early 
period  of  his  professional  life  while  his  rhetorical  habits  are 
forming,  to  pause  in  his  work  and  raise  practical  concrete 
questions :  Does  what  I  am  now  saying  express  just  what  I 
mean,  or  is  it  ambiguous?  If  I  express  myself  in  this  way, 
will  my  hearers,  at  any  rate  most  of  them,  but  better  all  of 
them,  understand  me  or  understand  me  correctly?  It  is 
clear  enough  to  me,  but  is  it  proportionately  clear  to  them? 
Are  they  famihar  with  this  terminology  which  is  so  clear  to 
me?  Will  they  readily  get  the  meaning  of  this  sentence, 
which  is  clear  enough  to  me?     Is  it  necessary  to   explain 


428  THE   WORK   OF    THE   PREACHER 

terms  that  express  fine  distinctions  in  thought?  Is  it  neces- 
sary to  reconstruct  this  sentence  in  order  to  straighten  it  out 
into  simplicity  and  perspicuity?  Shall  I  satisfy  or  offend 
the  tastes  of  my  hearers,  or  shall  I  meet  the  claims  of  my  own 
profession  upon  me  as  an  educated  man  or  the  exactions  of 
my  own  best  taste  and  judgment,  if  I  indulge  myself  in  such 
and  such  forms  of  expression?  Am  I  succeeding  in  making 
a  sufficiently  strong  expression  in  my  use  of  terms  or  in  the 
structure  of  my  sentences?  In  such  forms  of  expression  am 
I  conscious  of  an  unnatural  effort  or  is  it  strictly  normal? 
Is  my  vocabulary  or  the  architecture  of  my  sentences  strict 
idiomatic  English?  It  is  well  to  raise  these  questions  not 
infrequently.  It  all  means,  of  course,  has  my  pulpit  style  the 
qualities  of  exactness,  clearness,  elegance,  force,  natural- 
ness and  purity  that  are  necessary  to  secure  the  best  results 
of  preaching?  It  involves  a  study  of  the  laws  of  language 
as  related  to  these  properties.  These  laws  have  been  inves- 
tigated, registered  and  formulated  in  the  science  of  rhetoric. 
To  come  then  to  the  science  of  rhetoric  for  the  knowledge 
of  a  good  style  is  to  come  to  the  formulated  results  of  obser- 
vation and  experience.  It  is  to  come  to  the  standards  of 
intelligence  and  good  taste.  And  this  is  valid  for  all  types 
of  speech,  all  occasions,  all  themes,  all  speakers.  But  a 
good  pulpit  style  must  meet  specific  as  well  as  general  de- 
mands. Generic  qualities  must  adapt  themselves  to  specific 
wants.  Different  themes  call  for  and  naturally  secure  dif- 
ferent rhetorical  forms.  A  style  that  speaks  prevailingly  to 
the  understanding  will  differ  essentially  from  one  that  speaks 
chiefly  to  the  feelings  and  imagination.  A  man  who  treats 
his  subject  argumentatively  will  s]:)eak  differently  from  one 
who  presents  it  illustratively.  The  evangelistic  sermon  will 
have  a  different  rhetorical  style  from  the  doctrinal  or  ethical 
sermon.  The  character  of  the  audience  also  is  involved. 
What  might  be  perfectly  clear  to  one  audience  would  be 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  429 

obscure  to  another.  What  might  strike  one  audience  as 
rude  and  vulgar  would  impress  another  as  simply  strong  and 
manly.  What  might  captivate  one  would  offend  another. 
Even  the  size  of  the  audience  may  well  be  considered.  A 
small  audience,  especially  of  plain  people,  need  plain  speech. 
An  elaborate  or  elevated  style  of  speaking  to  a  small  audi- 
ence and  on  ordinary  occasions  would  not  be  fitting,  it  would 
not  be  in  good  rhetorical  form.  Rhetorical  form  has  rela- 
tion, moreover,  to  the  condition  of  the  preacher.  No  man 
always  preaches  in  just  the  same  way.  Style  varies  with  sub- 
jective conditions  and  external  influences.  It  varies  in  the 
same  discourse.  Extemporaneous  preachers  especially  dis- 
close a  considerable  range  of  variety  in  their  pulpit  style. 
They  frequently  deliberately  break  up  their  style  and  shoot 
suddenly  down  from  the  elevated  to  the  homely  and  collo- 
quial method  of  speech.  They  are  also  unconsciously  ex- 
posed to  a  great  variety  of  unforeseen  influences  that  break 
in  upon  their  speech  and  that  often  secures  a  momentary 
freshness  and  pungency  and  power.  Some  of  these  in- 
fluences are  beyond  the  reach  of  investigation.  But  many 
of  them  are  subjects  of  study  and  he  who  could  be  a  master 
of  assemblies  will  investigate  them. 

3.  I  suggest  thirdly  the  study  of  models.  Homiletic  style 
like  homiletic  structure  is  best  studied  in  its  concrete  prod- 
ucts. And  in  the  study  of  the  one  as  of  the  other  three 
methods  are  essential,  (i)  The  process  of  analytic  inves- 
tigation is  one  method.  The  verbal  and  grammatical  ele- 
ments of  a  preacher's  product  or  of  any  literary  product  are 
important.  Words  and  sentences  can  not  convey  all  there  is 
in  a  man's  style.  They  may  suggest  more  than  they  them- 
selves contain.  But  style  is  largely  a  matter  of  vocabulary 
and  syntax.  Emerson  was  a  student  of  the  verbal  and  gram- 
matical elements  of  English.  His  chaste  and  wealthy  vocab- 
ulary   is  product  of    minute,    painstaking  study    of    words. 


430  THE  WORK   OF   THE   PREACHER 

It  was  this  sort  of  study  that  Dr.  Johnson  had  in  mind  when 
he  advised  students  to  give  their  days  and  nights  to  Addison. 
Orators  have  studied  in  this  manner.  Demosthenes  studied 
Thucydides  with  reference  to  the  vocabulary,  and  the  order 
and  the  rhythm  of  the  sentences.  There  is  a  choice  and 
order  of  words  that  result  in  different  qualities  of  style.  All 
artists  have  been  analytical  students  of  their  art.  The 
experimental  sketches  of  different  parts  of  the  human  body 
which  one  sees  in  the  studio  of  Michael  Angelo  at  Florence 
indicate  the  artist's  knowledge  of  anatomy.  His  statue  of 
Moses  shows  his  genius  for  powerful  effects  in  statuary,  but 
behind  it  stands  most  careful  and  painstaking  and  minute 
analysis  of  anatomical  structure.  A  public  speaker,  even 
though  he  be  what  we  call  a  born  orator,  will  never  be  the 
master  of  his  art  without  study  of  the  elements  of  his  art. 
Mere  familiarity  with  the  impressions  that  come  from  a  lit- 
erary product  will  not  bring  an  adequate  knowledge  of  the 
sources  of  the  impressions.  The  one  who  merely  absorbs 
impressions  can  give  no  rational  account  of  them  to  himself 
or  to  others.  An  analytical  examination  of  vocabulary, 
syntax,  figures  of  speech,  qualities  of  style,  different  species 
of  composition,  will  be  of  value  to  the  preacher  long  after 
the  preparatory  period  of  study.  Ordinary  reading  can  not 
be  a  substitute  for  such  examination.  To  read  an  author 
is  not  to  study  him. 

(2)  The  process  of  unconscious  absorption,  however,  is 
another  method.  Much  that  is  best  in  a  man's  literary  style 
is  caught  by  what  we  call  the  literary  sense.  There  is  an 
unnamable  quality  that  seems  to  lie  back  of  a  man's  language. 
It  belongs  to  the  man  and  language  while  it  hints  at  it,  does 
not  wholly  interpret  it.  We  get  at  it  in  a  half-conscious  way 
by  familiarity  with  it,  just  as  by  familiarity  with  our  friends 
and  without  much  conscious  reflection  or  critical  analysis, 
we  detect  in  a  thousand  little  manifestations  what  lies  behind 


THE  RHETORICAL   FORM  431 

their  faces  and  forms  in  their  characters,  just  as  in  our 
observation  of  a  landscape  scene  we  take  in  unconsciously 
and  unreflectively  a  multitude  of  things  that  enter  into  the 
sum  total  of  our  impressions.  In  Italy  and  Germany  unedu- 
cated people  are  in  constant  contact  with  the  best  products 
of  painting,  sculpture  and  music,  and  they  are  often  better 
art  critics  than  educated  people  in  this  country.  We  are 
obliged  to  go  abroad  for  the  study  not  only  of  art  principles 
but  art  products.  No  American  needs  to  go  abroad  to  study 
rhetoric  and  oratory.  What  we  need,  however,  in  this 
country  is  a  better  use  of  the  English  language  in  common 
life.  One  who  lives  in  a  good  literary  atmosphere  uncon- 
sciously forms  correct  habits  of  speech  and  a  correct  literary 
taste.  Literary  sense  is  largely  the  product  of  unconscious 
influence.  Richard  Grant  White  traced  his  literary  tastes 
and  his  use  of  the  English  language  to  the  atmosphere  of  the 
school  in  which  he  fitted  for  college,  to  the  influence  of  his 
teachers  and  school  fellows  in  their  use  of  English  and  to 
his  study  of  English  classics.  We  can  readily  trace  the  in- 
fluence of  the  EngHsh  training-schools  for  boys,  like  Rugby 
and  Eton,  upon  the  speech  of  the  public  men  of  England. 
An  idiomatic  and  energetic  English  style  may  be  fostered 
by  habitual  intercourse  with  the  so-called  common  people, 
especially  those  of  native  vigor  of  mind.  The  average, 
every-day  sort  of  man  is  accustomed  to  say  what  he  means 
in  a  simple,  straight  and  forceful  manner.  But  if  one  would 
cultivate  a  refined  use  of  language  he  will  cultivate  the 
society  of  those  who  speak  and  write  the  better  type  of 
English.  The  influence  of  the  written  literary  product  is 
great,  but  the  influence  of  the  oral  product  is  greater.  And 
yet  absorption  of  the  written  product  is  a  large  part  of  a 
■preacher's  literary  culture,  and  especially  of  the  best  poets. 
(3)  Practice  in  writing  connected  with  study  is  essential. 
Thus  only  can  the  results  of  study  be  utilized  to  best  advan- 


432  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

tage.  The  objects  of  our  own  investigation  or  of  our  intel- 
lectual commerce  are  of  chief  value  in  calling  out  and  direct- 
ing our  own  activities.  If  they  supersede  our  own  activities 
their  influence  is  harmful. 

With  regard  to  practice,  the  following  suggestions  may  be 
made.  With  most  of  them  all  students  of  English  are 
familiar  and  they  have  found  them  of  practical  value : 

The  practice  of  examining  specimens  of  English  that  are 
defective  with  respect  to  the  essential  properties  of  style, 
e.  g.,  purity,  exactness,  clearness,  elegance,  force,  etc.,  in 
order  to  find  out  just  where  the  defect  lies  or  in  what  it  con- 
sists and  then  making  the  effort  to  correct  the  defect.  The 
practice  of  absorbing  or  memorizing  the  substance  of  the 
thought  of  some  writer  noted  for  excellence  of  style,  some 
preacher  by  preference,  and  then  incorporating  it  in  one's 
own  language,  and  comparing  the  result.  One  sees  by  com- 
parison where  one's  defect  lies.  One  thus  tests  himself  by 
his  model.  Having  the  example  immediately  before  one  he 
may  in  a  free  way  avail  himself  of  what  it  can  do  for  him. 
It  is  not  done  mechanically. 

The  practice  of  translating  poetry  into  prose.  This  famil- 
iarizes one  with  poetic  diction  and  at  the  same  time  enables 
one  to  turn  it  into  its  proper  prose  equivalent.  A  purely 
poetic  diction  would  be  offensive  in  the  pulpit.  Yet  the 
semi-poetic  or  a  prose-poetic  diction  is  desirable  in  preaching. 
The  practice  of  turning  poetry  into  prose  is  an  aid  in  the 
culture  of  such  diction.  This  is  the  more  important  in  the 
earlv  years  of  professional  study.  The  scientific  habit  of 
mind  or  the  habit  of  mental  abstraction  leads  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  an  abstruse  and  non-poetic  diction. 

The  practice  of  translating  from  foreign  languages.  Such 
practice  habituates  one  to  careful  observation  of  the  pecu- 
liarities, cither  the  excellencies  or  the  possible  defects  of 
any  classic,  in  order  to  get  not  only  the  meaning  but  the 


THE   RHETORICAL   FORM  433 

spirit  of  it.  Careful  observation  of  delicate  shades  of  mean- 
ing is  essential  to  this.  Such  practice  with  a  dead  language 
is  more  valuable  than  with  a  living  language,  because  it  is 
more  difificult.  It  is  more  difScult  because  the  objects  which 
the  words  represent  are  for  the  most  part  no  longer  in 
existence.  We  are  obliged,  therefore,  to  exercise  the  imag- 
ination more  largely,  and  it  is  such  exercise  that  is  of  great 
value  in  the  study  of  language.  Such  practice  also  enriches 
one's  vocabulary.  To  reproduce  fine  shadings  of  thought 
taxes  vocabulary.  It  necessitates  careful  discrimination  and 
it  is  discrimination  that  enlarges  vocabulary.  It  cultivates 
ingenuity  in  the  efifort  to  overcome  the  difficulty  of  rendering 
in  idiomatic  English  what  appears  in  a  wholly  foreign  idiom. 
Orators  have  been  accustomed  to  this  practice  for  the  pur- 
pose of  mastering  such  difficulties  and  of  enriching  their 
vocabulary. 

Careful  independent  practice  in  writing.  There  are  but 
few,  I  imagine,  who  attain  to  a  good  use  of  English  who 
have  not  at  some  time  habituated  themselves  to  the  com- 
posing of  each  sentence  of  a  written  product  carefully  in  the 
mind,  and  to  the  uttering  of  it  audibly  before  it  is  written 
down.  It  may  be  of  value  to  vocalize  it  vigorously  before  it 
is  written.  At  any  rate  it  is  not  well  to  write  the  sentence 
until  it  is  clearly  conceived  and  distinctly  uttered.  This  will 
be  slow  work,  but  it  will  pay  in  the  end.  One  who  is  willing 
to  begin  with  care  can  afTord  to  leave  the  question  of  facility 
and  rapidity  to  the  future.  They  will  come  in  due  course. 
Better  spend  a  few  months  or  even  years  in  careful  pains- 
taking with  the  certainty  of  ultimate  facility  of  excellence, 
than  begin  with  a  careless  habit  with  the  certainty  of  a  facility 
of  hopeless  imperfection. 

This  last  suggestion  may  need  some  limitation.  Correc- 
tions should  not  quench  vitality.  One  should  therefore, 
compose  in  such  way  as  will  secure  this.    Proper  care,  how- 


434  THE   WORK   OF    THE    PREACHER 

ever,  does  not  devitalize  style.  We  do  not  find  that  any  of 
the  great  writers,  who  have,  as  we  know,  patiently  and  toil- 
fully  elaborated  their  English,  have  worked  the  life  out  of  it. 
But  in  the  fiow  and  fervor  of  production  it  may  be  difficult 
to  secure  the  perfection  of  form  one  would  desire,  without 
losing  something  of  the  freshness  that  is  so  necessary  to 
effectiveness.  One  may  be  so  wrought  up  that  it  may  be 
difficult  to  combine  critical  severity  with  emotional  freedom. 
In  such  case  it  may  sometimes  be  best  to  run  oflf  one's  work 
at  a  single  sitting.  The  work  can  be  corrected,  and  often 
best  corrected  after  it  has  been  for  a  little  time  laid  aside. 
In  this  way  vitality  may  be  protected  and  defects  corrected. 
One's  best  w^ork,  even  with  respect  to  literary  form,  is  often 
done  under  high  pressure  and  with  great  rapidity.  Sermons 
written  in  such  moments  of  exalted  enthusiasm  will  hardly 
need  much  change.  Still  one  will  wish  to  avail  himself  of  an 
hour  of  cool  reflection  in  order  to  look  up  faults.  But  if  one 
can  compose  in  the  careful  way  above  suggested  and  at  the 
same  time  keep  the  flow  and  flush  and  vigor  essential  to 
effectiveness,  he  will  best  do  so. 

Writing  in  a  tentative  way  is  often  necessary  in  order  to 
limber  up  the  mind  and  get  it  into  free  action.  It  may  take 
time  to  get  well  started.  The  mind  needs  plenty  of  rope.  It 
is  well  to  let  it  have  its  own  way  for  a  while,  till  it  begins  to 
show  that  it  is  ready  to  begin  work  in  good  earnest.  When 
that  moment  comes  one  will  throw  the  product  into  the 
waste-paper  basket  and  start  anew.  All  this  is  simply  to  say 
that  in  the  right  cultivation  of  rhetorical  form  it  is  necessary 
to  get  the  mind  into  free  action,  for  one's  true  style  is  an 
utterance  of  the  mind  when  it  works  with  least  restraint. 


